Cell phone video showing more than a dozen people jumping out of a motorboat onto the shore of a Carlsbad beach Saturday afternoon prompted local leaders to call for stronger border security on Monday.
Customs and Border Protection said at least 15 to 20 people jumped out of the suspicious boat around 11 a.m. on Saturday. The video shows most of them jumping into a waiting SUV on Garfield Street and Grand Avenue in Carlsbad that then sped off.
U.S. Border Patrol agents and CBP Air and Marine interdiction agents responded to the incident, finding one abandoned vessel upon arrival. CBP Air and Marine Operations seized the vessel.
Law enforcement is investigating the incident. No arrests thus far have been made in connection with the event, CBP said.
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The video, along with previous smuggling operations, prompted Vista Mayor John Franklin and the mayors of Carlsbad, San Marcos and the deputy mayor of Oceanside to call for state and federal governments to secure the border in a joint press conference on Monday.
"We need border security for the safety of our residents, and we need it now," exclaimed Franklin during a press conference on the beach in Carlsbad on Monday.
“The chaos at the border, the fact that many of these crossers know there will be no consequences here encourages this and it makes our cities less safe,“ said Oceanside Deputy Mayor Ryan Keim.
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Carlsbad Mayor Keith Blackburn said, “My real concern is human trafficking. What are they bringing in with them? drugs, weapons, and who's on the terror watch list that's coming in via boats?"
Despite those concerns, according to SANDAG’s mid-year report last year, crimes against people, including human trafficking were down in 2023. An NBC News review of available 2024 crime data shows crime levels dropped in cities that have received the most migrants.
This is all despite high-profile incidents like the death of Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley, who, according to ICE, was killed at the hands of a migrant.
Despite the statistics, the North County mayors along with San Diego County Supervisor, Jim Desmond, are calling on state leaders to revise Senate Bill 54, which limits local law enforcement’s actions with ICE and other immigration enforcement authorities.
“So even if those people were caught, let's say the people that got off the boats and they were caught, maybe the car that they all got into got pulled over. The local police, sheriffs and police departments could not hand them over to Customs and Border Patrol. That needs to stop. That needs to be fixed,” exclaimed Desmond.
Immigration advocate Lillian Serrano, who is the director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said the immigration system's deterrence policies have been weaponized against migrants, who have limited paths to immigrate into the United States.
“That makes it so complicated to access the ports of entry, and that pushes migrants to take very dangerous paths, whether that is crossing a desert, climbing a border wall, or trying to come in through the oceans,” said Serrano.
If you have information on this incident, call the Joint Harbor Operations Center at 1-800-854-9834 Ext 1.
