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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 13 March 2023

8 dead after smuggling boats capsize off San Diego coast

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and struction. Popotla, a fish-
GREGORY BULL ing hamlet where narrow
Associated Press streets are lined with ven-
SAN DIEGO (AP) — At least dors selling a wide variety
eight people were killed of local catch, is favored
when two migrant smug- among smugglers for its
gling boats capsized in large, sandy beach and
shallow but treacherous relatively gentle waves.
surf amid heavy fog, au- At least some of Saturday's
thorities said Sunday, mark- victims were Mexican,
ing one of the deadliest according to the consul-
maritime human smuggling ate in San Diego, but how
operations ever off of U.S. many was unknown. Ille-
shores.A Spanish-speak- gal crossings have soared
ing woman on one of the under President Joe Biden,
panga-style boats called with many migrants turn-
911 Saturday night to re- ing themselves in to Border
port the other vessel over- Patrol agents and being re-
turned in waves at Black's leased in the United States
Beach, authorities said. She to pursue their cases in im-
said there were 15 people migration court.
on the capsized vessel and A pandemic rule sched-
eight on hers. uled to end May 11 denies
Coast Guard and San Di- Two boats, one overturned, sit on Blacks Beach, Sunday, March 12, 2023, in San Diego. migrants a chance to seek
ego Fire-Rescue crews Associated Press asylum on grounds of pre-
pulled bodies of eight and black. in a secluded area not far flowed over the years but venting the spread of COV-
adults from the water, but "That area is very hazard- from the popular La Jolla has long been a risky al- ID-19 but enforcement has
fog hampered the search ous, even in the daytime," Shores. Its reputation for ternative for migrants to fallen disproportionately
for additional victims. Re- Gartland said at a news some of the best breaks in avoid heavily guarded on Mexicans, Hondurans,
covery efforts resumed conference. "It has a series Southern California draws land borders. Pangas enter Guatemalans and El Sal-
Sunday but no additional of sandbars and in-shore many surfers. from Mexico in the dead vadorans because those
bodies were found. rip currents, so you can Hundreds of maritime of night, sometimes chart- have been the only nation-
Survivors may have es- think that you can land in smuggling operations oc- ing hundreds of miles north. alities that Mexico agreed
caped on land, including some sand or get to waist- cur every year off Califor- Recreational boats try to to take back.
the woman who called high, knee-high water and nia's coast and sometimes mix in unnoticed with fish- As a result, people of those
911. Authorities did not think that you're able to be turn fatal. In May 2021, a ing and pleasure vessels four countries have been
know her whereabouts. safe to exit the water, but packed boat carrying mi- during the day. more likely to try to elude
San Diego Lifeguard Chief there's long, in-shore holes. grants capsized and broke South of the U.S. border, capture, knowing they are
James Gartland said res- If you step into those holes, apart in powerful surf along there are many seclud- likely to be expelled un-
cuers found the two boats those rip currents will pull the rocky San Diego coast, ed, private beaches with der the public health rule,
overturned in shallow wa- you along the shore and killing three people and in- gated entrances between known as Title 42 authority.
ters when they arrived. Surf back out to sea." juring more than two dozen high-rises with magnificent Mexico recently began tak-
was modest, with swells Black's Beach is about 15 others. ocean views, some only ing back Cubans, Haitians,
around 3 feet (about 1 me- miles (24 kilometers) north Smuggling off the Califor- partially built because Nicaraguans and Venezu-
ter), but skies were foggy of downtown San Diego nia coast has ebbed and funds dried up during con- elans under Title 42.q

Federal officials pause plan to rename

Georgia’s Lake Lanier

the pause pending further ing the Chattahoochee ter the war.
guidance from the Depart- River northeast of Atlanta. Hours before announcing
ment of the Army. It was named for poet Sid- the pause in the renam-
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, ney Lanier when it was built ing process, The Times of
a Republican who repre- after World War II. Lanier Gainesville reported that
sents much of northeast served as a private in the the Mobile District of the
Georgia, said he called the Confederate army and Corps of Engineers sent out
Corps of Engineers Friday later wrote "Song of the a news release and un-
to express opposition. He Chattahoochee," a poem veiled a website seeking
said the pause is a "a tre- about the river. input and aiming to pick
mendous victory" and that Buford Dam is named af- new names by year's end.
Radko Jonas jumps into the water to retrieve a life vest that blew "renamings would have at- ter the nearby town of Bu- The corps said it was fol-
away as rain clouds approach at Lake Lanier on July 19, 2016,
in Gainesville, Ga. tempted to rewrite history, ford, which takes its name lowing a 2021 federal law
Associated Press impose massive burden- from Lt. Col. Algernon Sid- which governs renaming
some costs on our commu- ney Buford, who served in military bases christened
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — to changing the monikers nity, and create unneces- the Virginia militia during for confederates, including
Federal officials are paus- of landmarks now named sary mass confusion." the Civil War. The Georgia Georgia's Fort Gordon and
ing a plan that could lead for Confederate soldiers. Lake Lanier is an enormous town is named after Bu- Fort Benning. Fort Gordon is
to new names for Georgia's The U.S. Army Corps of reservoir spanning almost ford because he became becoming Fort Eisenhower,
Lake Lanier and Buford Engineers issued a state- 58 square miles (150 square president of a railroad that while Fort Benning is be-
Dam after locals objected ment Friday announcing kilometers) and impound- helped create the town af- coming Fort Moore.q