8 Dead After Boats Crash Near US Coast: Officials

San Diego police confirmed that eight people died when two suspected smuggling vessels carrying illegal immigrants collided with the coast.

According to Richard Brahm, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Offior Richard Brahm, a woman aboard one of the panga-style vessels called 911 late Saturday night to report that the other vessel was being swept away by waves off Blacks Beach.

“The woman who called stated that the boat that overturned had 15 people on it, but that was just an estimate,” Brahm spoke.

The Coast Guard and San Diego Fire-Rescue personnel pulled eight bodies out of the water. But thick fog hindered the search for more victims. Brahm reported that a Coast Guard cutter was in the area Sunday morning and that officials hope to fly helicopters when the weather is better.

Illegal immigrants often travel by panga-style boats between Mexico and Southern California. It is not known if any arrests were made or if the nationalities of those who have died have been determined by officials.

Monica Munoz, spokesperson for San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, told Newsweek that the high tides prevented lifeguards from accessing the beach after 911 was called.

The lifeguards “proceeded north on foot wading through knee- to waist-deep water,” She . “After a couple hundred yards, lifeguards on the beach reached dry sand and then began to find lifeless bodies and two overturned pangas spread over an area of about 400 yards.”

“Lifeguards pulled victims from knee-deep water and from the waterline up the beach to dry sand,” She continued. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found an eighth body later.

Newsweek also reported that she found barrels of fuel and life jackets during the search.

After President Joe Biden became president in 2021, illegal border crossings soared. Many illegal immigrants have turned themselves in to Border Patrol officers before being allowed to enter the United States to continue their immigration cases.

But a federal judge last week struck down the administration’s program of releasing many illegal immigrants rather than holding them until their court cases. In a harsh ruling, the judge argued that this rule was in violation of federal law.

“The evidence establishes that Defendants have effectively turned the Southwest Border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump for aliens flooding into the country,” T. Kent Wetherell (U.S. District Judge) was appointed by Trump. ruling.

In the meantime, a pandemic-related regulation that will end May 11 denials illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers based on the possibility that they spread COVID-19 is in place.

This report was compiled by the Associated Press.