San Diego, CA
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.
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.
Global entertainment company Webtoon is returning to the hallowed halls of San Diego Comic-Con with a larger-than-life slate of panels featuring top talent and fresh announcements.
They will be shining the spotlight on some of today’s most engaging webcomic creators, including Derek V. Song (Fantasy High) and Punko (Cinderella Boy).
Let’s take a look at their schedule:
Thursday, July 23 – 10am – Room 29AB
Creature Craft: Visionaries of Horror Comics Share Their Secrets
This panel features Punko, creator of Stagtown and Cinderella Boy on WEBTOON; Cullen Bunn, creator of Ripcord and Deluge for Ignition Press; and Cat Staggs, co-creator of Death Mask, and artist on Tales for a HalloweeNight for Storm King Comics. Rotem Rusak, Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist, will moderate.
Friday, July 24 – 10am – Room 32AB
Love in Every Universe: The Great Romance Trope Debate
Join ROSEOAK, creator of Not So Silent on WEBTOON, Alessandra Ferreri, Head of Content at Wattpad, E.M. Wilson, author of Situationship, and Becca Erin Title, founder of Meet Cute Romance Bookshop. The panel is moderated by Crystal Bell, the Culture Editor at Mashable.
Friday, July 24 – 1pm – Room 32AB
Adapting Fantasy High for WEBTOON with Derek V. Song
Featuring Derek V. Song, writer of Fantasy High. Fans will get a behind-the-scenes look at adapting the beloved Dimension 20 series for WEBTOON and learn more about bringing the world of Fantasy High to a new visual format.
Saturday, July 25 – 11:30am – Room 24ABC
What’s Next from WEBTOON Entertainment
Featuring Ryan Lee, Head of Content at WEBTOON; Sydney Bright, Head of Global Animation at WEBTOON Productions; Erik Kozura, Producer at WEBTOON; ROSEOAK, creator of Not So Silent; Derek V. Song, writer of Fantasy High; Punko, creator of Stagtown and Cinderella Boy; and Ucheomaaa, creator of Vibe Check! on WEBTOON. Journalist, comic critic, and 2026 Eisner judge, Tiffany Babb, will moderate. his panel will deliver a slew of announcements, exclusive first looks, and Creator appearances from its platform and entertainment businesses. Additionally, the panel will give fans a window into what’s next from WEBTOON’s most exciting stories and projects, with news from WEBTOON Originals, WEBTOON Productions, WEBTOON Unscrolled, and more.
Beachgoers in one Southern California town had to run for their lives after two massive sea lions came out of the ocean and onto the beach in San Diego.
In a video posted July 7 on Instagram, Dion Ruzicka captured the terrifying moment the two giant sea creatures hit the shore and began chasing people at the beach on a sunny California day.
One sea lion suddenly charged at stunned beachgoers, barreling across the sand as terrified visitors shrieked and sprinted away while the barking beast gave chase.
Moments later, a second sea lion joined the chaos, sending panicked crowds scrambling for higher ground — and even into the surf — to escape the pair’s path.
The more people ran, the more determined the hefty marine mammals seemed, waddling after the fleeing beachgoers in a bizarre game of chase.
“Oh my God,” one person could be heard saying, in the midst of the chaotic scramble.
It didn’t matter whether the visitor was young or old, the sea lion just kept chasing them. Finally, both animals dived back into the ocean and swam away at a quick pace.
It is not the first time such an encounter has happened in the popular La Jolla spot. A year ago, a video showed a pair of sea lions chasing beachgoers around before finally leaving.
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San Diego has warned the public about the potential dangers of going near wildlife living in the area.
“With the increase in the sea lion population, Point La Jolla has become a popular tourist destination for the public to view these wild animals close up,” a message on the city’s website read.
As a result, interactions between sea lions and the public have increased.
“Members of the public have been observed trying to touch, take selfies, and get as close to sea lions as possible which is a dangerous situation for both the public and the animals,” it added.
Officials suggest people watch the animals from the boardwalk and keep their distance from the sea lions.
While it is unclear what lead to Tuesday’s chase, the summer months are pupping season for these ocean animals. Mothers and fathers become protective of their young ones, and will display aggressive behavior, if they sense a threat, per officials.
“These interactions are not only dangerous for both humans and wildlife, it may be a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act which helps to safeguard these animals,” the city said.
The California Post has reached out to the La Jolla Parks and Beaches group for further comment.
San Diego’s most beloved neighborhoods, like North Park, Golden Hill and Sherman Heights, were built by people who needed a place to live and found one. But the bungalows, fourplexes and cottages that gave working San Diegans a foothold in those neighborhoods can hardly be built anywhere else in the city.
Rules written decades ago banned them. For 70 years, San Diego has been paying for that mistake in the form of a city its own workforce can no longer afford to live in.
Neighborhood Homes for All of Us is the city’s plan to fix that: family-sized townhomes, rowhouses and small duplexes built in the neighborhoods where San Diegans most want to live.
While San Diego rents are softening as new apartments are built, the cost of buying a home is not moving, and it won’t, because the rental and ownership markets run on entirely separate tracks. Renters benefit when more rentals are built, forcing landlords to compete for them.
However, a family trying to buy a home benefits only if more homes are available for sale. San Diego home prices now exceed nine times the median household income, among the worst ratios in the nation, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Building rental housing is important, but it does not change the math for a buyer.
The homes that would change it — family-sized, on the ownership track, in the neighborhoods where people most want to raise children — have been illegal to build for decades. San Diego produced roughly 7,000 condos and townhomes a year in 2005. By 2022, that number had collapsed below 500. Part of that drop is because of litigation rules that drove up insurance costs for builders, caps on pre-sales that finance these projects and high fees. Another major reason is that we simply do not allow starter homes on smaller lots. So, instead, builders default to rentals because that’s what current rules allow them to build profitably.
London Moeder Advisors, a San Diego real estate economics firm, finds that eliminating the city’s large-lot-size mandates could produce new townhomes at 42% less cost than surrounding single-family homes without taxpayer subsidies. While this price point is still high for many, it’s more attainable for young families starting out. And importantly, the price could drop further if the state advances reforms to address litigation rules and pre-sale caps that drive up costs.
The city’s program is also focused on adding homes in San Diego’s neighborhoods with the best-performing schools and most accessible jobs. These are also the neighborhoods with the most restrictive regulations on smaller starter homes. A teacher whose classroom is in La Jolla cannot afford to live there. A firefighter stationed in Mission Hills commutes from Santee. The homes that would let them stay are currently illegal to build in much of these areas. Neighborhood Homes changes that.
While critics may say San Diego already has the tools for adding homes to neighborhoods, why add another program? Because each of those tools was for a different purpose. None were designed to add more for-sale housing.
ADUs, the backyard homes now common across the city, typically top out at 750 square feet (because of fee cliffs) and entail intricacies when selling to own. Other tools, like Senate Bill 9, have been layered with requirements that make it far too complicated and expensive for many homeowners to split their lots to add homes. Laws like Senate Bill 79 are important for adding more housing near transit. But none of these tools focuses on family-sized, ownership-track townhomes in an established neighborhood.
The Neighborhood Homes initiative asks a simple question: Where do the families who can’t afford a million-dollar home but don’t want an apartment go? We can continue to say certain neighborhoods are off-limits to the teachers, trades workers and young families who want to live there, or San Diego can set its own terms for how they grow, with local standards in a form the city controls.
San Diego’s most beloved streets were not preserved into existence. They were built — a duplex here, a rowhouse there — by people who needed a place to live in the city they loved and found one. That is what Neighborhood Homes makes possible again.
Asad is a former board member of the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County. He resides in Mid-City.
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