Three detained after coming ashore in boat


UNION-TRIBUNE

2:14 p.m. November 24, 2007

IMPERIAL BEACH – Sheriff's deputies on Saturday detained three undocumented immigrants who came ashore in a boat that was abandoned near the south end of Seacoast Drive.

A sheriff's sergeant said that about 7 a.m., an Imperial Beach resident called authorities and said a friend who had been walking on the beach spotted as many as five people getting out of a boat.
Deputies detained three people they found walking along Seacoast Drive and verified they were undocumented, the sheriff's department said. The detainees were later taken to a Border Patrol station.

In the past six months, a number of beat-up boats suspected of being used for human smuggling from Mexico have turned up along the county's coastline.

Earlier this month, the Coast Guard found a 20-foot vessel abandoned north of Del Mar's Dog Beach. In September, a homeless woman reported seeing about 10 people coming out of 24-foot boat that came ashore at La Jolla's Wipeout Beach.

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