* which, of course, could just as easily be ferrying weapons, explosives, and operators... _____ Another human-smuggling boat found Watercrafts dumped after bringing immigrants ashore By Leslie Berestein UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER November 8, 2007 The discovery of a dilapidated 20-foot pleasure boat on a Del Mar beach early yesterday is just the latest instance of a suspected human-smuggling boat turning up abandoned along the county's coastline. <http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071108/images/met-smuggle.jpg> JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune ICE agents and Coast Guard officials talked with contractors about how to recover a small vessel discovered abandoned yesterday on a Del Mar beach. During the past six months, between 10 and 15 beat-up watercraft have been found dumped along the coast between Imperial Beach and Del Mar, immigration officials said. "What we are seeing now is a new tactic that is being used, which is basically to get these old boats for cheap somehow, and then abandon them as quickly as possible," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in San Diego. "It's no loss to the organization." The latest suspected smuggling vessel was found sometime before 4 a.m. yesterday by the Coast Guard north of Del Mar's Dog Beach, Mack said. Another boat suspected of being used in a smuggling operation was found abandoned on the same stretch of beach late last month, she said. In September, a 24-foot boat washed ashore at La Jolla's Wipeout Beach, south of the lifeguard tower at Children's Pool. A homeless woman who had been sleeping nearby told lifeguards she had seen about 10 people come out of the water and run away. She said they had been wearing black. The boats being found are typically old vessels in bad shape, lacking such essentials as running lights and safety equipment, said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge of ICE in San Diego. The agency is investigating the recent incidents, which Mack said could be the work of one or more organizations. "Any smuggling operation, in some manner, poses a threat to national security," Unzueta said. The discovery of these suspected smuggling boats lately is not surprising in that border enforcement has squeezed many of the land routes used, said Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California San Diego. "This is something that was foreseen in the Border Patrol's strategic planning for border control in the early 1990s," he said. "They anticipated that it would put pressure on both maritime approaches to the U.S. and the Canadian border." The Border Patrol is reporting 20 percent fewer illegal border-crossing apprehensions were made along the southern border thisfiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, than the previous year. However, arrests in the San Diego sector are up 7 percent. According to the agency, the San Diego sector is the only stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border that did not witness a drop in apprehensions during the past year. ICE officials in San Diego said that while the practice of abandoning boats after a smuggling operation is a new phenomenon, human smuggling by sea is not new to the area. Unzueta said it tends to be a seasonal phenomenon in San Diego, with smugglers trying to blend in with pleasure boat traffic during warmer months. A local spokesman for Customs and Border Protection said the agency was hiring additional agents to combat the problem. "We are trying to plan ahead," said Vince Bond, an agency spokesman in San Diego. "We want to get ahead of the issue if in fact it is moving back this way, and we want to get ahead of it by having a more robust marine capability." _____ <http://www.signonsandiego.com/images/utbullets/utbullet.gif> Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579; <http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/MAILTO:[EMAIL PROTECTED] niontrib.com> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://images.clickability.com/pti/spacer.gif> Find this article at: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20071108-9999-1m8boats.htm l (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. 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