A boatload of illegal immigrants was brought ashore in Newport Harbor in Newport Beach, California, in an incident that clipped a yacht as the vessel came in, according to a report from the California Post. Once on land, the migrants were loaded into waiting cars and driven away to unknown destinations.
Newport Beach is a low-crime, high-income community of roughly 82,000 residents, and the daylight landing has drawn attention to how smuggling networks are increasingly attempting sea routes into California.
Federal authorities say the incident reflects tighter enforcement at the southern land border, which has pushed smugglers toward the coast. Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have increased efforts to intercept smugglers before they reach the coastline, and that federal agents stop most such boats while they are still on the water.
Unlike Texas and Florida, which have established state-level partnerships with federal authorities to deter similar boat landings, California does not currently cooperate in the same way. State law restricts local and state law enforcement agencies — including in cities that have not formally declared themselves sanctuaries, such as Newport Beach — from assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The incident comes amid renewed debate over the cost and consequences of California’s sanctuary policies. A recent report by City Journal, also published in the California Post, found that some illegal-immigrant families can access more than $100,000 a year in public services funded by California taxpayers.
Sanctuary laws in the state also limit the ability of authorities to hand over illegal immigrants who have been arrested for turning them over to federal immigration officials for deportation. In one recent case cited in connection with the debate, an illegal immigrant was accused of fatally stabbing a 68-year-old man in his front yard in Martinez, California, one day after the suspect had been released from jail in a sanctuary jurisdiction.
The Newport Harbor landing has added a coastal, high-profile example to the ongoing debate over California’s approach to immigration enforcement and its relationship with federal authorities.
