Justin Bullock, FISM News
Immigration in the United States has been a hot button political issue recently, as the southern border has been overrun with illegal immigrants. The Biden administration has provided little direction on the crisis and neither Biden or Harris, who was tasked with the emergency, have visited the border.
However, while the focus has been on the droves of people crossing the Mexico/American border, other locations of illegal immigration and even human smuggling are being missed by the public eye. One such location where illegal immigration and human smuggling have been seeing an increase is on the California coast.
US Customs and Border Protection issued a warning on April 30th regarding a “dramatic increase in the number of maritime smuggling.” A few days later, a boat capsized off the coast of San Diego, California. The San Diego Fire Department reported that 30 illegal immigrants were on the boat in an attempt to gain illegal entry into the country. Of those 30 people, 3 of them died and the rest were hospitalized.
More recently, on Monday and Thursday, two more boats smuggling 23 and 15 to 18 people respectively crashed off the coast of San Diego. Thankfully, everyone survived in Monday’s incident. However, on Thursday one person died and eleven others were hospitalized. Jacqueline Sarkissian, a reporter for Fox 5 San Diego, tweeted this thread covering Thursday’s story,
#BREAKING: A rescue mission is underway in La Jolla where @SDLifeguards say 15-18 people attempted another smuggling incident by boat. @fox5sandiego pic.twitter.com/scHV7MT0MU
— Jacqueline Sarkissian (@JSarkissian) May 20, 2021
The Coast Guard and Border Patrol have expressed that such means of illegal immigration and human smuggling are quickly increasing as US attention, time, and resources are being directed toward the southern border. Authorities warn that these maritime methods of immigration are dangerous and illegal and also warn that American immigration policy makers cannot turn a blind eye to this mounting problem.
It appears that Biden now has more than one border crisis on his hands. Whether he chooses to stop ignoring the problems or not is yet to be seen