A dozen illegal immigrants brazenly arrived in the United States by taking a speedboat to a California beach, where they nearly ran over people in the water and then escaped in cars.
The boat passed by a few meters of what appeared to be a surfer in the water as it quickly passed and approached the beach at very high speed.
After beaching the boat on the sand, the migrants got out and ran toward the row of waterfront houses on Saturday.
Another video showed them being picked up by black vans waiting in Carlsbad, a coastal city about 30 miles north of San Diego.
The cars left in such a hurry that one woman nearly fell when the vehicle began to move before she could fully climb into the back seats.
Locals who filmed the migrants claimed they called the police, but they did not show up.
The images are the latest in the migrants’ brazen attempts to cross the border illegally. While most are trying to sneak from Mexico into the United States across the land border, others, like boaters, are trying new methods.
A dozen illegal immigrants brazenly arrived in the US by taking a speedboat to a California beach
The boat passed by a few meters of what appeared to be a surfer in the water as it quickly passed and approached the beach at very high speed.
Illegal immigrants like those on the boat were not counted among the 6,997 asylum seekers who turned themselves in to border patrol in San Diego in the first week of April.
Immigrants can seek asylum in the United States by crossing the border and immediately reporting to authorities.
However, a smaller number enter the country illegally with no intention of pursuing the asylum process.
The almost 7,000 immigrants from 70 countries were more than other sectors usually receive in an entire month.
The San Diego sector, which includes most of Southern California’s border with Mexico except El Centro and Calexico, received between 6,000 and 8,000 migrants in recent weeks.
After beaching the boat on the sand, the migrants got out and ran toward the row of waterfront houses on Saturday.
Another video showed them being picked up by black SUVs waiting for them in Carlsbad, a coastal city about 30 miles north of San Diego.
The cars left in such a hurry that one woman nearly fell over as she began to move before she could fully climb into the back seats.
What makes the April 3-9 numbers so significant is that they were the highest in the country, surpassing even the highest-ranked Tucson sector.
The Arizona sector only had 6,600 immigrant arrivals, but regularly reaches 11,000.
The Border Patrol divides the border into “sectors” or regions, with San Diego being the third busiest according to the latest figures, but that could be changing.
“Tucson has been the number one sector for immigrant arrivals since July 2023, but the numbers have been declining,” said Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America.
“While one week’s worth of data is not enough evidence, San Diego may be supplanting Tucson as the number one sector.”
With so many migrants entering the country through Southern California, migrants being screened by the US Border Patrol are being released onto the streets.
The county’s migrant shelter closed a few months ago, after local leaders decided they did not want to spend the $18 million a year needed to continue operating.
“At that time it was costing us about $1.5 million a month to basically be their travel agent,” said San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond.
Without local shelter, border patrol turns migrants loose at a transit station or at the airport.
‘The biggest load here lately has been our airport. Luckily many of them fly to other parts of the country, but we are a tourist community. People who come to San Diego see all the people sleeping there. It looks bad,” added the commissioner.
‘We just can’t sustain it; “We can’t manage the numbers that come here.”
Immigrants have been known to spend up to five days crashing at the airport while waiting for a flight out of the city, Desmond added.
The weekly figures do not include migrants who entered the U.S. legally with CBP One appointments at the San Ysidro port of entry between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego.
At least 77,000 immigrants have entered Southern California that way between October and February, federal statistics show.
Migrants with carry-on luggage are apprehended at the El Campo border on March 13
The United States Border Patrol detained 6,997 immigrants from April 3 to 9
Migrant encounters in the San Diego sector (shown above) have increased steadily since 2021. Last week, the region recorded 6,997 in just one week, according to federal statistics.
The latest figures from Customs and Border Protection showed that in the month of February the agency encountered 189,922 at the southern border.
This fiscal year alone, the agency has encountered more than 1.1 million people at the border, which began for the government last October.
He record numbers of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border have migrated a major concern in this year of presidential elections in the United States.
‘Our immigration system… is fundamentally broken, including our asylum system which so significantly impacts the security of our borders and the processes we administer at them,’ Immigration Secretary Alexander Mayorkas said last week.
“Only Congress can fix our broken and outdated system and only Congress can address our need for more border patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges.”
The United States is expected to have to deal with more than 8 million asylum seekers and migrants who will have crossed the southern border by September.
The staggering figure represents a 167 percent increase in five years and underscores the challenges facing what is an outdated and underfunded immigration system.
The vast majority of the 8 million are now free to roam America’s streets, including 2 million “high priority” cases of career criminals seeking asylum.
The United States is expected to have to deal with more than 8 million asylum seekers and migrants who will have crossed the southern border by September.
The staggering figure represents a 167 percent increase in five years and underscores the challenges facing what is an outdated and underfunded immigration system.
Immigrants who cross the border can often be forced to wait several years for a decision on their applications. Meanwhile, they have been released onto American streets.
Recent data suggests that the backlog has only increased during President Joe Biden’s term, partly reflecting the difficulties his administration has faced in addressing the unprecedented influx of migrants, primarily from Central and South America.
At the end of fiscal year 2023, on Sept. 30, more than 6 million people were registered in what officials call the “non-detainee docket.”
Government projections, as reported in Homeland Security documents sent to Congress, suggest that number will have risen to 8 million by October 1.
The vast majority of the 8 million are now free to roam America’s streets, including 2 million “high priority” cases of career criminals seeking asylum.
