Two fishing boats sank outside San Diego, California, killing at least eight fishermen, emergency authorities said. Authorities searched Sunday for an estimated seven more persons. Petty Officer Richard Brahm of the US Coast Guard reported that a lady in one of the panga-style boats contacted 911 late Saturday to report that the other craft had crashed in the seas off Black’s Beach. “The woman who phoned indicated that the boat that overturned had 15 passengers on board, but that was only an estimate,” Brahm added.
Eight corpses were recovered by Coast Guard and San Diego Fire-Rescue workers, but dense fog impeded the search for further casualties. Brahm said officials wanted to fly helicopters when the weather improved after a Coast Guard cutter patrolled the area early Sunday. The vessels were suspected of smuggling humans. “ Eight individuals died, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Eddie Berrios. He didn’t know what sort of boats they were, but pangas, tiny open boats with outboard engines used in smuggling, regularly come ashore there. It was unclear if any arrests were made or the passengers’ nationality. This was one of a few hundred migrant smuggling occurrences in San Diego this fiscal year, according to US Border Patrol special operations supervisor Eric Lavergne. He stated people had crossed into the US via swimming, surfing, or boarding panga fishing boats. Several asylum seekers have turned themselves in to Border Patrol authorities and been permitted in the US to continue their immigration court cases under President Joseph Biden.
Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, and El Salvadorans are the only nations Mexico has committed to take back, thus a coronavirus pandemic regulation that ends May 11 denies migrants refuge to avoid the spread of COVID-19. As a result, persons from those four nations have been more likely to try to evade capture, knowing they may be expelled under Article 42. Under Title 42, Mexico began returning Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.
