What is the dangerous sea route for migrants seeking to reach the United States?

The Witnesses and rescuers recount a dramatic moment. A boat with dozens of migrants started to “to break” near a beach in San Diego, California, prompting everyone on board to jump into the sea.

“There were people in the water who were drowning, being sucked into the current”, recalled Jeff Stephenson, Head of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), on the incident on May 1. They shouted and beckoned for help amid strong waves and cliffs at Point Loma, where witnesses jumped into the sea to assist as rescuers arrived. In a few minutes, the ship began to disintegrate with the pounding of the waves. Eventually, they saved 32 people who had to be hospitalized, but two men and a woman drowned.

“It’s probably one of the biggest crashes we’ve seen here. It’s a tragedy. In 26 years here, this is probably the worst tragedy ”, explained to journalists James gartlant, head of the San Diego lifeguard unit.

With the exception of the man at the helm, they were all undocumented migrants seeking to reach the United States by sea. As the possibilities to seek asylum shrink and the US border wall has grown taller, longer and more guarded, many are being pushed to look for weak spots or alternatives.

One option is to try to cross by sea, a route that has always been there but that few dare to take. Even a “pollero” who devoted himself to welcoming illegal immigrants for decades recounts BBC Mundo who prefers not to risk. “I had an accident, it was okay – the sailboat broke down and I couldn’t go any further for five days – but I didn’t want to risk there anymoreGustavo pointed out (not his real name).

Despite the danger this route poses, over the past year, U.S. immigration officials have seen a “spectacular” increase of 92% in the case of ships carrying migrants off the coast of California. And this year, business is set to break records.

The fortified fence that separates Mexico and the United States becomes small and rusty as it touches the waters of the Pacific between the Mexican city of Tijuana and the American city of San Diego.

At this point, groups of migrants who have arrived from other parts of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean – and even Europe and Africa – usually meet and find that the “American dream” is so near. Many are desperate. They have been there for weeks or months, waiting in nearby shelters for their asylum claims to be admitted to the United States., or that their families raise the thousands of dollars that the “polleros” ask to bring them to the other side.

“For the frustrated migrant, in a very desperate state, when considering the different ways to cross into the United States, crossing by motorboat or boat may seem more convenient, ”he said. BBC Mundo Pedro Rios, head of the San Diego bureau of American Friends, a migrant advocacy NGO.

But the journey across the sea begins far from the border wall.

Tens of kilometers to the south on the beaches near Rosarito and Ensenada, In Baja California, is where smugglers take migrants to load them into boats that depart from yachts, medium boats or light boats called “pangas”. What the smugglers do not explain to these migrants is that they will have to face a very risky path and endure many hours, if not days, of travel.

“They’re using old, maintenance-free boats with engines they don’t know if they’ll hold up. The engine makes a lot of effort to push it ”, explained Gustavo, who says he has been bringing people to the United States since he was 13.

The coasts of this region of the Pacific, on both sides of the border, are bordered by cliffs and rocks. There are only a few sandy beaches in the tourist ports on the Mexican side, so the “polleros” have a few points to set sail without the supervision of the authorities. They prefer to travel at night to avoid detection. So they go into the ocean when the tide rises, which is a first risk.

“Unpredictable weather conditions, strong currents and freezing water temperatures create a ruthless environment“said to BBC Mundo Jason givens, a spokesperson for CBP. CBP Air and Marine Operations Office deploys sensor-equipped boats and aircraft daily to detect suspicious movements, even on the high seas.

For this reason, boats with migrants they have to take many breaks along the way. There are small islands where they wait for the departure of the patrols to continue their journey. “Contraband ships generally do not operate with adequate safety equipment, usually without lighting, navigation or communication systems”, Givens noted

“Unlike illegal entry across the land border, if there are problems at sea, rescue is much more difficult and potentially impossible.. That is if they can communicate with the rescue personnel ”. For more chances of success, polleros can try to reach well beyond San Diego, the beaches of Oceanside, San Clemente or even Los Angeles and San Francisco, hundreds of miles from their starting point.

Gustavo says that when he passed people by sea, they were carrying between 10 and 15 people. But that the current “ambition” of many “polleros” makes them take dozens of men, women and even children, overcrowded and without enough food or water. “These people think they are carrying fish (….) And the weight is not enough for the engine, it overheats and will explode “said the pollero.

Reaching the shores of California is not the end of the danger, but the most critical point of the journey. The water in this strip of ocean is cold, influenced by Alaskan currents. In winter, it drops to 2 ° C. Despite this, landing usually occurs in water.

“The main danger is that they cannot swim. Because the people who take them don’t even warn them, ”Gustavo stressed and added:“ If they tell them that, from the start, people won’t want to go anymore. They are left some distance from the shore, where it is still deep. And they (the trafficker) are not interested. They arrive, empty and come back. This can cause drowning for those who cannot swim ”.

After leaving the beach, the migrants are then handed over to a “contact” who is already waiting for them with a vehicle to be transferred undetected. Emma Ramírez, who witnessed the incident in San Diego on May 1, told the Telemundo network that the migrants assured they left at 11 p.m. the day before and that they ran out of gas six hours later.

Drifting, the boat He reached the rocky point where the waves break and started to break.

The sea crossing is one of the most expensive. The indictment against the man who managed the wreckage of the ship in San Diego, the migrants claimed they paid between US $ 15,000 and US $ 18,000 to take away. On the other hand, the land crossing can cost around US $ 8,000, explained Pedro Ríos. Although it is an expensive trip, cases of vessel detection have increased steadily since 2017, according to figures from the CBP.

“We have recently seen a dramatic increase in the number of maritime smuggling attempts”, said San Diego area border patrol chief Aaron Heitk, who said last year the increase was 92%.

So far, in fiscal year 2021 (since October 1), 909 arrests and 76 ships have been detected. These figures show that this year is on track to surpass the previous period. Jason given said criminal organizations they see undocumented migrants “as a commodity” which they can benefit from, without taking care of their safety.

“They will look for a way to carry out their criminal activity, whether by land or sea. The ocean is, in many ways, just one more form of smuggling and that’s nothing new to the San Diego area. ” Pedro Ríos, for his part, explains that this is a phenomenon that defenders of migrants have seen on the increase for 15 years.

“This phenomenon results from the fact that the border has been reinforced since the mid-1990s, when the presence of immigration authorities in urban areas and forced migrants to find other ways to cross with more risk, in the desert, in the mountains or in the sea, ”he explained.

What many migrants fail to realize, however, is that deaths also occur at sea in the same way as in the desert area between Mexico and the United States. CBP authorities say they have no records of deaths from these types of cases at sea.

But the International Organization for Migration, which tracks cases with official figures and media reports, says “Drowning” and “possible drowning” were among the three main causes of death of migrants at the border Mexico-EE.UU. in 2020 and so far in 2021.

Last year there were around 40, a number that also includes deaths in the Rio Grande / Rio Grande on the Texas-Mexico border. “There is more news about the deaths that occur when trying to cross the desert, and not so much about those that occur by sea.”Said Ríos.

But the desert, the accidents on the wall and the sea can be just as dangerous.

BBC Mundo