What happens after a Panga crash?

Sometimes they have been intercepted at sea or capsists along San Diego beaches.

Whenever small boats are used for human smuggling on the coast of Southern California, the crews of customs and border protection or coast guard work to stop them on their way and capture people on board.

“What we normally see is that the coast guard will hand over the people to border patrol for immigration processing,” said Pedro Ríos from the American Friends Service Committee.

Watch: see the full report with more perspective of Ríos below

What happens after a Panga crash?

Rios is a lawyer for immigrant rights. He says that passengers are usually brought ashore and driven to one of seven border polish stations for processing. The coast guard says that the exact station depends on where they were arrested.
“Processing includes the question of who they are, their identifying information, including the sampling of DNA, and you will examine how their immigration history could be if there were other encounters with these people,” said Rios.

According to Rios, agents try to recognize whether this was a maritime smuggling incident and who was responsible. This person could be exposed to criminal charges, including participation in organized crimes or human trafficking.

“After you have spent time in prison, if you are not US citizens, you will probably be confronted with immigration consequences, which is the removal from the United States.”

Rios says when passengers and documented immigrants who have not yet been arrested and have no criminal history, they are usually processed quickly and deported to their country of origin.

In some cases, they should be held in custody in order to speak as witnesses in court proceedings.

“You will also be there to give the authorities their testimony about who may be involved in the smuggling event.”

In tragedies such as the one on Monday morning, in which no questions answered, the investigation for home protection can take over to pursue the mastermind behind it.

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