--- title: Illegal Immigration by Sea | TIME description: Beach landings are part of a recent spike in illegal immigration by sea to the San Diego area from Tijuana canonical: https://time.com/video/8JIYmb2M/ og:title: Illegal Immigration by Sea og:description: Beach landings are part of a recent spike in illegal immigration by sea to the San Diego area from Tijuana og:url: https://time.com/video/8JIYmb2M/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8JIYmb2M/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Illegal Immigration by Sea twitter:description: Beach landings are part of a recent spike in illegal immigration by sea to the San Diego area from Tijuana twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8JIYmb2M/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Illegal Immigration by Sea > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Illegal Immigration by Sea [Watch (HLS stream): Illegal Immigration by Sea](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8JIYmb2M.m3u8) (5:58)  _Published 2009-03-27. Beach landings are part of a recent spike in illegal immigration by sea to the San Diego area from Tijuana_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Sarah Huckabee Sanders Talks About A Resturaunt Asking Her to Leave](/video/GsIg1E9r/) ### Sarah Huckabee Sanders Talks About A Resturaunt Asking Her to Leave [Sarah Sanders Says Illegal Immigrants Don't Need A Judge To Get Due Process](/video/l7RE1d7M/) ### Sarah Sanders Says Illegal Immigrants Don't Need A Judge To Get Due Process [Sarah Huckabee Sanders Says She Knows Nothing About Michael Cohen And His Payments](/video/JOjIvA5P/) ### Sarah Huckabee Sanders Says She Knows Nothing About Michael Cohen And His Payments --- ## Transcript >> Over the past few decades, the border between the U. S. and Mexico has gotten progressively more fortified. High- tech surveillance, tall fences, rigorous screening, but smugglers have often seemed one step ahead. No longer. Motion detection technology, automated cameras, surveillance aircraft, and even taller fences have, according to the U. S. Customs and border protection, turned the tide against border smuggling. As a result, more and more smugglers are using a section of the border that is unfenceable, the ocean. The increase in marine smuggling has forced the U. S. Customs and Border Protection to beef up its marine and aerial patrol. Helicopters and high- powered intercept boats work in tandem; one to spot from the air, the other to chase and capture. This strategy works well during the daylight hours. Chasing smugglers in the dark is a different story. It's 4 a. m. at the San Diego Harbor Police boat ramp. CPB Officer Kelly Hale pilots Midnight Express, a marine interceptor. >> Now, the specific goal tonight is basically patrol for detection, looking for targets as they're moving northbound. >> Hales heads into the night. This boat is fast. Four engines generate 900 horsepower, enough to outrun almost anything that floats. For now, Kelly keeps power and noise to a minimum. He sails lights out just as the smugglers do. >> This is just a chart plotter, but this is electronic version of the old paper maritime charts. And then linked to that also is our radar. Once darkness falls, the ocean becomes an immense void. Smugglers escape detection by traveling lights out in pangas, wood and fiberglass boats that are virtually invisible on radar. A panga often carries 24 passengers who pay up to 4, 000 a piece to be carried into the U. S. With profit margins like these, professional smugglers and drug cartels are getting involved in human trafficking. Tonight, Hale will patrol the 20- mile stretch from San Diego to Tijuana and head out along the dogleg, a zigzag in international waters near Coronado Island. It's the smuggler's super highway. Hale revs the engines, flying over dark water, stirring by instruments and instinct. In minutes, the lights of Tijuana appeared. But the border fence is the brightest spot in the night. Hale checks his position. >> It's exactly 1 mile west of Imperial Beach and about a mile north of the border. >> Now, they wait. Another interceptor is a mile further offshore. And somewhere in this vast darkness, pangas with their desperate passengers maybe heading north. It's a game of cat and mouse. Hale checks in with coast guards. Dawn comes. Nothing tonight. But smugglers have gotten through. It's impossible for CPB to be everywhere at once. It's time to head home. The second interceptor joins Hale for the journey back to port. But what about the boats that do make it through? Further up the coast, Ed Badrasca, a lifeguard at Torrey Pines Beach pans the horizon. This desolate beach is a favorite destination for smugglers. He and his fellow lifeguards have discovered five abandoned pangas on this beach. >> Well, Torrey is sort of the last open space that's wild on the coastline for all of the county. You know, if you're running a boat along these bluffs here, it would be very easy to go undetected and then ditch the boat, run to the coastline and then get picked up by somebody with a prearranged pickup person. The beach here at Torrey Pines would be the end of a long and hazardous night at sea. The pangas, heavily loaded and underpowered, would have a difficult time landing safely here especially in the dark. >> It just kills me, you know. It's like their last ditch effort, you know. They put all their money into one basket and then they go. So, there's no turning back, you know. There's not like-- The guys are not gonna go. Hey, you know, the surf is big. Let's just not go today, you know. You get inside the surf here. I mean, that's terrible. You know, that's really hard to negotiate with the panga and the surf is small today, you know. In the past 5 months, CPB units have intercepted 114 boats at sea and made 122 arrests, double last year's figures. Another hole in the fence may be closing up. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Illegal Immigration by Sea","description":"Beach landings are part of a recent spike in illegal immigration by sea to the San Diego area from Tijuana","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8JIYmb2M/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-03-27T21:33:48.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8JIYmb2M.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/8JIYmb2M/","duration":"PT5M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/8JIYmb2M/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```