SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Crew members aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Benjamin Bottoms rescued 19 people who were in a small boat during the weekend about 68 nautical miles west of Ensenada, Mexico.
The coastal community of Ensenada is about an hour’s drive south of the San Diego-Tijuana border.
The vessel was reportedly dead in the water and drifting while in international waters, and not yet in U.S. territory.
Mexico’s Navy said it launched a search and rescue operation looking for the small boat.
When the Coast Guard responded and located the vessel and the 19 people on board, it then transported them to a Mexican ship that took them back to Ensenada to be evaluated.
Once on dry land medical personnel checked on the passengers while Mexican immigration agents questioned the people rescued.
While not calling them migrants, the 15 men and four women were described as people from “different origins.”
The boat, according to the Mexican Navy, had been reported as stolen.
