Suspected illegal immigrants arrested in Mission Beach (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Suspected illegal immigrants arrested in Mission Beach

BY DEBBI BAKER
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 4, 2010 AT 6:31 A.M., UPDATED OCTOBER 4, 2010 AT 12:24 P.M.

SAN DIEGO — Twenty-one people suspected of entering the country illegally were arrested early Monday in Mission Beach after they came ashore on a boat.

The group was taken into custody about 2:30 a.m. near Ocean Front Walk and Santa Barbara Place, Border Patrol authorities said.

Nineteen were determined to be from Mexico and two were from Honduras, said Border Patrol agent Steven Pitts.

Agents first spotted the 22-foot red panga about 2:20 a.m. as it was heading north toward the Mission Beach jetty, Pitts said.

All were arrested without incident upon disembarking and were processed for return to their countries, he said. The boat was confiscated.

A man determined to be a U.S. citizen who was in a van parked nearby was also arrested, Pitts said.

Using boats to smuggle people into the United States from Mexico has increased in recent years as federal authorities made it more difficult to cross illegally at the land border.

On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy crews worked together to rescue 16 suspected illegal immigrants from a disabled vessel about 40 miles off the North County coast.

In July, 17 illegal immigrants were arrested after being dropped off by a boat at Black’s Beach. Three days before that, 22 were taken into custody as they tried to come ashore from a boat at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. In June, 18 people were arrested on the base after apparently being dropped off by a boat that was never located.