They move north in rickety fishing boats, often overloaded and barely seaworthy, slipping through the darkness and hidden from the watchful radar of American patrols.I think this demonstrates the effectiveness of the border fence. The smugglers are having to take alternative routes that are more difficult and costly. The US will need to add fast boats to the screening effort along the coast. With the decline in the boating industry, there are probably some bargains on the market right now.Along beaches north of here, the migrants from Mexico and beyond scramble ashore, in groups of a dozen or two, and dash past stunned beachgoers, sometimes even leaving behind their boats, known as pangas. Drug smugglers, too, take this sea route, including one last month found paddling a surfboard north with a duffel bag full of marijuana on it.
As the land border with Mexico tightens with new fencing and technology, the authorities are seeing a sharp spike in the number of people and drugs being moved into the United States by sea off the San Diego coast.
...For generations, people have tried to swim, surf and ride boats, sometimes carrying contraband, into the United States from south of the border.
But 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 and a sevenfold increase in maritime drug seizures, principally several thousand pounds of marijuana.
The authorities have taken note that the increase coincides with the near completion of new, more fortified border fencing along a 14-mile stretch from the ocean inland.
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The Department of Homeland Security is responding to this surge with orders for more boats and equipment.
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The effort could be supplemented with some sail boats which could add some persistence to the effort at lower cost. They could act as the eyes of the fleet and call in the faster boats when they spot smuggling activity. The carbon phobes would also like the fact that little fuel would be used.
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"smugglers are having to take alternative routes that are more difficult and costly."
The article had a photo of a surfboard that was used to get around the border wall. Sure surfing is difficult, but boards don't cost that much, do they?
The congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office both found that the border wall at most redirects crossers, as in they hop on a surfboard to go around the wall instead of walking in a straight line, but it has had "no discernible impact" on the number of people who enter the country. The Border Patrol has repeatedly referred to it as "a speed bump." But we have shelled out $3.1 billion and counting for that speed bump.
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