San Diego, CA

Rep. Levin asks for surveillance towers along San Diego coast to prevent maritime smuggling

Published

6 months ago

May 14, 2025

Rep. Levin asks for surveillance towers along San Diego coast to prevent maritime smuggling

As concern mounts over dangerous maritime smuggling crossings, U.S. Rep. Mike Levin said this week that he plans to ask Congress for $60 million in federal funding to install surveillance towers along the San Diego coast.

The move comes a week after three people died when a panga with 18 people aboard capsized off the coast of Del Mar. A 10-year-old girl also went missing and is presumed dead.

“Last week’s accident shows us that there’s a lot more we still have to do,” Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, said at a news conference Monday in Del Mar. “As our land border tightens up … bad actors will continue to explore new ways to enter the U.S.”

Levin said he requested funding for autonomous surveillance towers to be deployed along maritime borders. These would include additional cameras, radar and infrared technology to help intercept maritime threats, he said.

Such technology is currently used at the U.S.-Mexico land border, according to a Border Patrol spokesperson. The solar-powered towers reach up to 33 feet tall and have a 3-mile diameter range, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.

The cameras use artificial intelligence, the agency said, to sort out real concerns from false positives. As a group or something of interest moves about, the monitoring is handed off from tower to tower, “keeping the electronic eyes on the situation at all times,” the agency said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Levin announced in a press conference Monday that he is requesting federal funding for additional autonomous surveillance towers along the San Diego coast. (Alexandra Mendoza / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

When the towers catch something of note, agents in the field get an alert on their phones or tablets.

There are towers for land use and maritime use, said Dave Maass, director of investigations with Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for digital privacy. He said the United Kingdom uses similar technology to monitor the English Channel.

Locally, he said, there is at least one maritime camera on private property in Del Mar, north of Dog Beach, and another at Friendship Park along the border in San Diego.

Maass said it’s not clear what the maritime towers watch, whether they look just to the water or also see people on the beaches.

“I don’t think people have a good sense of what they are capturing and what they are seeing,” Maass said. “There should be some transparency about that, because if they are capturing people on the beach, questions should be asked.”

Levin said he was briefed on last week’s fatal incident by CBP’s air and maritime operations, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard. He then asked officials what was needed to prevent such incidents.

He said he hopes the autonomous system would be a deterrent to smugglers, who typically wait for bad weather to slip ashore. With bad weather comes greater safety risks.

“One common denominator currently hindering interdiction and response efforts is heavy fog or issues related to weather conditions,” he said. “That was the instance last week. These towers would help fill the gaps in our detection efforts and help make our borders more secure.”

As the number of migrant encounters between land ports of entry have declined, officials have said that maritime crossings could become more common.

Since the start of the Trump administration, the U.S. Coast Guard has tripled its resources on the southern border “to enhance border security, immigration enforcement, and to protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” the agency said in late March.

A family devastated

Last week’s incident was the region’s worst maritime smuggling disaster since 2023, when eight people, all Mexican nationals, died after two vessels capsized off the coast of Black’s Beach in La Jolla.

In the most recent tragedy, three people — two Mexican nationals and a 14-year-old boy from India — died at the beach. A fourth, the boy’s 10-year-old sister from India, is missing and presumed dead.

The children’s parents were among four people taken to a La Jolla hospital, where their father was in a coma. The hospital declined Monday to provide an update on the status of the patients.

The Indian Express news site interviewed the uncle of the man in the coma, who said his nephew had owned a business but the pandemic left him in financial trouble.

The uncle, identified as Anil Patel, said that last he knew, the family of four had gone to London on a visitor’s visa in October. He assumed the family would return. “They did not tell us that they were planning to enter the U.S. through the illegal route,” he said.

Patel said the Indian Consulate in San Francisco informed his family of the deaths of the two children.

Recent smuggling attempts

Del Mar has been the site of numerous maritime crossings in recent years — Del Mar Chief Lifeguard Jon Edelbrock said he’s responded to “hundreds” — and on Monday, city officials publicly supported Levin’s efforts to better secure the coastline.

“It is important to underscore that incidents like these are dangerous and put everyone involved at risk,” said Del Mar Mayor Terry Gaasterland. “We support efforts to bring the criminals involved with these human smuggling activities to justice and to prevent this activity from continuing in the future.”

From May 4 through Saturday, there were 11 maritime smuggling incidents on the Southwest border, according to weekly data from the U.S. Coast Guard in Southern California. Another nine cases were reported the week before, involving 52 people.

Over a 13-hour period on Saturday, Coast Guard personnel interdicted three suspected smuggling boats off the coast of San Diego and detained 18 people, officials said. One captain intentionally beached his boat while being pursued by a Coast Guard cutter, while another only stopped after a Coast Guard crew member fired copper slugs into the boat’s engine to disable it.

The first incident began after a 24-foot cabin cruiser was spotted around 4:40 a.m. by a Coast Guard cutter that activated its blue lights while trying to stop it. The boat’s captain sped off toward shore and intentionally ran into the sand near Windansea Beach, where 13 people jumped off and began running.

Homeland Security officers on shore were able to apprehend five men from Mexico, a woman from Cuba and a woman from Guatemala. Six got away, officials said.

The second incident occurred around 2:40 p.m. when a Coast Guard crew did a routine security boarding on a 20-foot pleasure craft 2 miles south of Point Loma. The boat was not displaying any registration, and the three people onboard were not authorized to enter the U.S. The three were detained and transferred to Homeland Security officials.

The final incident occurred around 5:50 p.m. when officials spotted an 18-foot cuddy cabin traveling north near Point Loma and watched with surveillance cameras as it entered San Diego Bay, officials said.

A Coast Guard boat crew went to intercept the vessel, but the captain drove off. The crew used verbal commands and fired several loud warning shots to try to get the captain to stop. When that didn’t work, a crew member fired four copper slugs into the engine to disable it. The crew boarded the boat and found eight people onboard, including five men, one woman and two teen boys. All were detained.

Besides the funding request, the congressman is also part of a bipartisan group of legislators that in February reintroduced a bill that aims to expand CBP’s jurisdiction from 12 to 24 nautical miles offshore.

“Specifically, it will increase detection, interdiction, and ultimately prosecution of those who are attempting to bring illegal cargoes (narcotics, bulk cash, guns and human trafficking victims) into the nation,” Levin’s office said in a news release.

San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican who is running for Levin’s congressional district, called the effort “too little, too late.”

“Mike Levin has been complicit in the chaos we’re seeing today,” Desmond said in a statement. “This isn’t leadership — it’s political damage control.”

Levin said Monday he plans to submit the request for federal funding “within the next few days.”

Staff writer Karen Kucher contributed to this report.

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A Taste of Massachusetts in PB: The Story Behind Big Jim’s Roast Beef | San Diego Magazine

Published

9 hours ago

November 14, 2025

Press Room

A Taste of Massachusetts in PB: The Story Behind Big Jim’s Roast Beef | San Diego Magazine

One beautiful Wednesday morning just before 11 a.m., I found myself faced with a mountainous pile of thinly sliced, slow-roasted, tender roast beef generously slathered with James River BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, and white American cheese (the traditional “three-way”), sandwiched between a buttered and grilled caramelized onion bun.

Looking at the towering challenge before me, I thought, “Surely I won’t be able to finish all of this right now.”

Approximately three minutes later, as I wiped the remnants of the now completely vanquished Super Beef from Big Jim’s Roast Beef from my hands, table, shirt, pants—and yes, a bit out of my hair—I realized there was no chance of any part of that sandwich going home with me. Not only was it ridiculously, awesomely delicious, chef/owner James “Big Jim” Jones had just explained that these types of sandwiches are best eaten immediately, as per Massachusetts’ North Shore Beef Code.

Photo Credit: Beth Demmon

“These are the beef guidelines,” he explains, pointing to a list of rules lorded over by a very angry looking anthropomorphic roast beef sandwich that I would venture to guess at least a few hundred people in Massachusetts have tattooed on them. He runs through each rule, ranging from acronyms for efficient ordering (COTB: Cheese on the Bottom vs. COTT: Cheese on the Top) to review criteria for comparing notes with other aficionados (B2B: Beef to Bun ratio or NGB: Nicely Griddled Bun).

He stopped at TIB: Time in Bag. Ideally, the time your sandwich spends in a to-go bag should be as close to zero as possible—every second the medium-rare beef sits on a bun and not on your tongue, it goes from pink to gray. “You want to have no time in bag,” he says. “As soon as you get it, eat it.”

There aren’t a ton of places in Southern California to get a legit New England–style North Shore roast beef sandwich, and Big Jim’s feels like a teleporter to Massachusetts, where Jones originally hails from. When he moved to San Diego in 2016, he worked in a few kitchens around town like Ono Grinds, Wicked Maine Lobster, and Cloak & Petal for a couple of years. Cue the pandemic, and the at-home boredom.

San Diego restaurant Big Jim's Roast Beef in Pacific Beach featuring owner James “Big Jim” Jones at a local farmers market — Courtesy of Big Jim’s Beef

He picked up a deli slicer from OfferUp and started roasting and slicing roast beef like he used to get back home. Making sandwiches for himself turned into making sandwiches for friends. That turned into making an Instagram page for deliveries and then a pop-up at Poor House Brewing Company in North Park. Finally, it became a booth at a couple of farmers markets.

Three years later, he got the chance to lease a small storefront in Pacific Beach, and celebrated the restaurant’s two-year anniversary this September.

Like the roast beef, Jones’ business plan takes time. “[I] let the universe work pretty naturally and organically,” he says in terms of his expansion plans. He’s in no rush to open a second storefront, but would be open to it once he feels the Pacific Beach location gets fully dialed in. There’s still a bit of customer education to do, because a North Shore-style roast beef sandwich shouldn’t be messed with, and the customer isn’t always right (at first).

“If people come in and they get a roast beef sandwich and ask me for ketchup, I say, ‘What are you using your ketchup for?’ And depending on what their answer is, you might not get the condiment that you want to go with your sandwich,” he says with a smile. “It’s beautifully perfect the way it is. Try it! And if you still want some condiments to go with it, come back. Let me know. I’ll take care of you.”

San Diego restaurant Big Jim's Roast Beef in Pacific Beach featuring their Super Beef sandwich and owner James “Big Jim” Jones — Photo Credit: Beth Demmon

His signature sandwich is unquestionably the Super Beef, the New England regional classic that’s really not for the faint of heart. For a more diminutive approach, the Junior Beef is the same thing, but with slightly less roast beef on a plain bun rather than an onion bun. There’s also a French dip (which he admits isn’t a Massachusetts staple, but still beloved); a steak & cheese on a hoagie roll; and the homemade, hand-cut onion rings that have a cult following. (Warning: a large order of onion rings is bigger than you think.)

Despite making it to #33 on Yelp’s top 100 restaurants for 2025, a lot of Big Jim’s business comes from word of mouth and the small, but strong contingent of “Massholes” (he said it, not me!) in PB. “We’re the nicest jerks you’ve ever met,” Jones jokes.

But the San Diego sun must melt the grumpiness out of the East Coast transplants, because from what I can see, everyone leaving Big Jim’s is in a great mood, despite bulging bellies and barbecue-sauce smeared fingers. And now we can get real roast beef sandwiches and not have to deal with the East Coast’s nasty weather, San Diegans really do have the best of both worlds.

Big Jim’s Roast Beef & Subs is located at 4508 Cass Street, Suite B in Pacific Beach. Hours are Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Exterior of San Diego taco shop Las Cuatros Milpas in Barrio Logan set to close after 90 years in business — Photo Credit: Marshall Williams

San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events

After A Year Of Rumors and Speculation, Las Cuatro Milpas Counts Down to Closing

The end was always going to come for Las Cuatro Milpas—the family said so themselves—and that time is nigh. The Barrio Logan property officially sold this week for $2.21 million, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, and will likely cease operations by the end of the year.

The past year has been awash with rumors of the restaurant’s imminent closure, originally vehemently denied by the Estudillo family on multiple occasions both online and in-person, but the property’s sale has now been confirmed by the family’s real estate agent Voltaire Lepe. According to the U-T, only the building and adjoining parcel will change hands (not the business name or restaurant itself) to the longtime next door neighbor, Iglesia del Dios Vivo Columna Inc., the controversial Light of the World Church (again, something the family said would not happen). But mounting debts and aging owners leave few options, it would seem.

With so many conflicting narratives of what people wished would happen and what is actually happening, it’s a bit of a bummer how the end is shaking out for this iconic institution. But in the dwindling weeks we have left to enjoy the best beans and tortillas in town, I propose we focus on remembering the amazing 92 years the Estudillos gave San Diego. Take every opportunity you get to grab a taco and thank the ladies behind the counter for their long and tireless service. Las Cuatro Milpas, you will not be forgotten.

Beth’s Bites

Crack Taco Shop is slowly, but surely extending its domain across San Diego. The home of the “world famous crack tri-tip taco” (debatable on being world famous, but still tasty) just opened its third location in Encinitas, and is less than a month away from opening its fourth location at 1009 Orange Avenue on Coronado. The group also just announced that they ditched seed oils in favor of olive oil and beef tallow, so if that’s a thing you keep track of, go ahead and add them to your list of seed oil-free restaurants in San Diego.
If you’re looking to do some good in the community today, consider grabbing a bite at Just Peachy Market in Encinitas. Owner and father of two, Noberto Ambrosio recently had his immigration case reopened and is expected to appear before an immigration judge on November 25. He and his family posted a message of how they can best be supported, including writing to the judge or emailing the court, continuing to shop at Just Peachy, or even just stopping by with a message of support and solidarity.

Listen Now: The Latest in San Diego’s Food and Drink Scene

Have breaking news, exciting scoops, or great stories about new San Diego restaurants or the city’s food scene? Send your pitches to [email protected].

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Santee poised to ban e-bikes for children under 12

Published

1 day ago

November 13, 2025

Press Room

Santee poised to ban e-bikes for children under 12

The Santee City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved toughening regulations for e-bike riders by banning their use by those under age 12.

The ordinance will require a second and final vote in December.

“I am a very big supporter of this, public safety is one of our number one issues here,” Mayor John Minto said, noting that he has ridden his own e-bike over 6,000 miles.

The ordinance is in line with a state pilot program that took effect this year and allows cities in San Diego County to impose age restrictions for e-bike users. The program is set to run through 2029.

Santee will became the latest to implement the restriction, following Chula Vista, Coronado, Poway and, most recently, San Marcos.

The move will specifically ban children under 12 from operating Class 1 or Class 2 e-bikes. For the first 60 days after the ordinance goes into effect, violators will be issued a warning, but after the initial grace period, violations will be punishable by a $25 fine.

A Class 1 e-bike is defined as a bicycle equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and can reach up to 20 mph. A Class 2 e-bike is equipped with a motor that can be used exclusively to propel the bicycle, and can also reach up to 20 mph.

San Diego Sheriff’s Office Deputy David Drake said it is equally important that helmets are worn by those operating e-bikes.

Riders of Class 1 and 2 e-bikes under the age of 17 are legally required to wear a helmet, he said.

City leaders warned that public education of the new regulation will be necessary once the ordinance goes into effect.

Councilmember Lauren Koval said the city should inform Santee schools of the change and consider putting up informational fliers.

Keeping parents informed of the restrictions could prevent repeat offenses, Minto added. Some parents might purchase an e-bike for their underage child without knowing it is banned, he said.

“I think a lot of adults are part of the problem,” Minto said. “At some point we will have to have a discussion about, if you have multiple offenses by the same child, what happens to the parent?”

The council is set to approve the ordinance Dec. 10. The city plans to hold a public information period leading up to its effective date on Jan 10.

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San Diego Made Holiday Market rescheduled due to weather

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2025

Press Room

San Diego Made Holiday Market rescheduled due to weather

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — With rain in the forecast for Southern California, a community pop-up makers market featuring local businesses in San Diego is rescheduling its holiday event that was originally planned for this weekend.

The San Diego Made Holiday Market was originally scheduled for Nov. 15 and 16 at NTC Park in Liberty Station but, due to potential thunderstorms, organizers have pushed back the two-day event to the weekend of Nov. 29 and 30.

The location and times of the holiday market will remain the same: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 30.

Holiday market at Liberty Station. (San Diego Made)
Holiday market at Liberty Station. (San Diego Made)
Holiday market at Liberty Station. (San Diego Made)

The holiday market will feature more than 100 local makers and artisans, offering goods from art and jewelry to apparel and home decor. Food and drinks will also be available for purchase.

Guests of all ages can enjoy live performances, workshops, photo booths and art installations, all with a festive theme.

General admission to the event is $5, but a $10 ticket option includes a limited-edition canvas shopping bag. Proceeds from the holiday market directly support San Diego Made, a nonprofit dedicated to artist opportunities and creative programming across San Diego County.

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