Overview
- A panga boat carrying 16 migrants capsized off Del Mar Beach on May 5, resulting in three confirmed deaths, including a 14-year-old boy from India, and a 10-year-old girl presumed lost at sea.
- Federal prosecutors have charged five Mexican nationals in connection with the smuggling operation, including two alleged pilots, Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna.
- Rodriguez-Leyva and Zuniga-Luna face charges of bringing in aliens resulting in death, a capital crime under U.S. law, and could face the death penalty if convicted.
- DHS Secretary Kristi Noem cited the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Federal Death Penalty Act in her formal request for capital punishment for the alleged smugglers.
- The tragedy underscores the dangers of maritime human smuggling, with survivors and victims’ families highlighting the devastating human cost of such operations.