SAN DIEGO — Just after midnight one Friday in late October 2021, the captain of a fishing boat sailing nearly 100 miles off the San Diego coastline spotted a faint light in the distance. In what a Coast Guard pilot later described as a miracle, the captain had spotted the occupants of a disabled, overloaded fishing boat signaling for help.
The 25 migrants on board had been stranded at sea for three days in a boat meant to hold just a few people. All things considered, they were lucky — they had survived.
As maritime smuggling attempts along Southern California’s coastline have surged in recent years, so too have mishaps and deaths. Authorities and experts say a number of forces have influenced both the rise in such incidents and the attention they have received.
