A total of 23 migrants were detained by the U.S. Border Patrol Sunday morning after officials responded to two separate boat-based human smuggling attempts.
The first occurred around midnight about 15 miles off Mission Bay when U.S. Coast Guard cutter Active interdicted a 25-foot panga. After crew members boarded the vessel, 16 people were found and determined to be undocumented migrants, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
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All claimed Mexican nationality and were transferred to U.S. Border Patrol custody.
Later that morning, about 7:45 a.m., Border Patrol agents were called to Sunset Cliffs Beach where a small boat had been abandoned on the sand.
“After a search of the area, agents found seven people hiding in nearby brush,” a Border Patrol statement said. “All seven people were determined to be illegally present in the United States. It was determined that all seven had disembarked the panga; the group was taken to a local Border Patrol station for processing.”
The discovery of two smuggling boats early Sunday comes just over a week after a woman died when the smuggling boat she was riding in capsized in heavy surf near Ocean Beach.
Maribel Merino Bernardo, 57, a Mexican national, drowned when the 25-foot cabin cruiser overturned on Jan. 25, sending more than 20 people into the water near the foot of Saratoga Avenue. Lifeguards and surfers rescued those they found in the water. Nine people were taken to the hospital, officials said at the time.
