Dozens of migrants were caught on camera jumping off a speed boat that came ashore a California beach over the weekend and running into the nearby city in what locals are saying is becoming a regular occurrence.
Video posted online shows the speedboat racing towards the shore in Carlsbad on Saturday, narrowly missing a nearby surfer.
This reportedly happened yesterday in Carlsbad, California. A group of mostly military age males invaded our country illegally via boat and then dispersed throughout the city in cars.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 14, 2024
Are any of them on the terror watch list? Do any of them have a criminal history?
We don’t… pic.twitter.com/MQHqpF27Gu
Almost as soon as it landed, a group of adult migrants were seen jumping off the boat and sprinting towards a row of oceanfront houses.
The migrants were then seen piling into a black SUV near Ocean Street, but the driver appeared to be in such a rush that one woman almost fell out as it started moving.
Other migrants who were not able to fit inside the vehicle were then seen crossing the street, and walking into the affluent city.
“It looked like it was a planned deal,” resident Susan Hargis told KUSI.
The man who filmed the incident also said it “looked like a military exercise,” as he told KGTV he counted 22 people jumping off the speedboat.
“To see it live like that, I mean even police and border patrol said they never caught it live like I did,” the unidentified resident said.
“So to see one coming toward the shore at 40, 45 miles an hour and not turning, it was like a movie… and the lifeguards were just sitting there, so I thought it was a planned, staged event.”
Border Patrol agents were notified by police that the boat came ashore at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, and found an abandoned vessel “consistent with human smuggling,” a spokesperson for the agency told The Post.
No arrests have been made, and an investigation is ongoing, the spokesman added.
But the video came as the San Diego border sector recorded the highest number of encounters in the country over the past week, with 6,997 encounters, KUSI reports.
Between 2020 and 2023, there has also been a 139% increase in human smuggling events.
At the same time, nearly 8,000 people have been apprehended while trying to enter the US illegally through the Pacific Ocean, its coastlines or its inlets, according to Fox News.
Migrant drowning deaths off the coast of San Diego County have also spiked in recent years, with 33 migrant deaths between 2020 to 2023, compared to just one in the previous four years.
Researchers have hypothesized that the rise could be linked to the increase in the border fence height from 17 feet to 30 feet — prompting some migrants to cross via water.
“Smugglers have convinced migrants that the maritime environment is an easier route. It’s more of a sure thing,” said Brandon Tucker, the director of Customs and Border Patrol’s Air and Marine Operations in San Diego, adding that people with hip, knee or other mobility issues may also prefer to travel by boat.
“And in fact, it’s not… Ocean smuggling is so dangerous.”
He noted that agents may not know what they are approaching when they pull up next to a ship carrying migrants, as their radar cannot detect anything stored below deck.
They could be helping someone who developed hypothermia during the voyage, or they could “be pulling guns on a drug smuggler,” Tucker said.
“When you’re in close quarters like that, it can be very dynamic and very dangerous.”
Of the utmost concern to Carlsbad Mayor Keith Blackburn are smuggling operations, he said at a news conference on Monday.
“What are they bringing in with them, what drugs, weapons and who’s on the terror watchlist, who’s coming in via boats,” the mayor said, listing the unknowns about the migrants, according to CBS 8.
“We don’t know who these people are, we don’t know where they went or where they’re going,” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond added.
The two, as well as other local officials, are now pushing for a greater investment in equipment, personnel and technology to monitor and intercept unauthorized vehicles.
“We need harsher penalties on human smugglers,” Desmond said.
“We need the state and federal officials to bring more resources, whether it’s more Coast Guard or National Guard.”
Rep. Mike Levin is also calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring forth a bill that would double the range in which Customs and Border Patrol agents could operate, stretching the US customs water from 12 to 24 nautical miles.
In the meantime, the Biden administration is allocating $45 million to California to deal with the migrant crisis, according to KGTV.
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