While migrants and asylum seekers have long sought entry to the US from the Caribbean Sea, efforts to reach the US mainland from Mexico via the Pacific Ocean have been less common. The US Department of Homeland Security reports that increasing numbers of migrants are seeking to enter the US (California) by sea from Mexico.
“[US Coast Guard] Commander Pearce and other officials in the Department of Homeland Security say those sporadic efforts have accelerated to unprecedented levels recently — a doubling in the number of illegal immigrants — more than 300 in the last two years — caught on boats or beaches….”
“New smuggling rings have also emerged, operating out of beach towns south of the border and islands off the Mexican coast, convincing migrants that the passage is safe and the ocean too wide open for maritime law enforcement to catch them.”
“The authorities arrested 136 illegal immigrants sneaking in by sea in the fiscal year that ended Oct. 30, double the 66 marine arrests in 2007. Since October, more than 100 illegal immigrants have been arrested….”
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MIGRANTS AT SEA 