Elected leaders pushed this week for the lifting of U.S.-Mexico border restrictions, which they say has harmed the region’s economy. “As we embark on this recovery post-pandemic, we absolutely cannot do that fully until the border is fully reopened,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said during a news conference Thursday, after touring a cross-border COVID-19 vaccination site near the currently closed PedWest border crossing. “This is justified as we’ve seen vaccination rates increase and infection rates fall,” Gloria said. Gloria was joined in a news conference with Imperial Beach Mayor ..read more

The entire shoreline of Southern California's Imperial Beach is closed to swimmers and surfers after sewage-contaminated runoff flowed north again from Mexico’s Tijuana River. The closure announced Friday will be in place until testing shows the water is safe, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Reports of the putrid smell have been flooding in from residents of coastal communities for weeks, the newspaper said. “The stench was crazy, just terrible,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina. “We’re just going into our round robin of endless openings and closures because of the residu ..read more

Three men and a teenager suspected of swimming around a U.S.-Mexico border wall were arrested in Southern California, federal authorities said. The Border Patrol said two other men suspected of picking up the trio in an SUV on the U.S. side were also taken into custody Monday in Imperial Beach. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported all five were identified as Mexican nationals who were not authorized to be in the U.S. Agents patrolling the coastline approached the two men and the teen after spotting them wearing torn wetsuits on the beach around 6 a.m., the Border Patrol said. All thr ..read more

A Navy veteran released from an Iranian prison last week on a medical furlough says he is sick with symptoms of the coronavirus and is requesting a humanitarian evacuation to the United States for medical treatment. Michael White was hospitalized Wednesday in a ward for coronavirus patients in Iran and has experienced fever, fatigue, a cough and shortness of breath since his furlough last week, according to a statement from Jon Franks, a family spokesman, to The Associated Press. White, of Imperial Beach, California, “is an immunocompromised cancer patient and his situation is urgent,” Franks ..read more

One person died and a second was hospitalized after a suspected smuggling boat carrying seven people capsized in unusually high surf and cold weather off the coast of Imperial Beach early Monday, authorities said. Federal officers spotted the boat, estimated to be a Bayliner-style vessel about 16 to 18 feet long, heading north off the coast of Imperial Beach around 2:30 a.m. Officials said the boat appeared to have engine problems, and at least two people were seen entering the water and swimming toward shore, said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jeff Stephenson. A short time later, the vesse ..read more

The mayor of Imperial Beach, which abuts Tijuana, Mexico, at a point that is visible by a border wall marking the two countries, is fed up with sewage and toxic chemicals flowing into the United States, and he is heading to Washington, D.C., to ask the Trump administration to do something about it. Mayor Serge Dedina left for the nation’s capital on Sunday with a congressional delegation. He told Border Report that he has meetings at the White House scheduled on Tuesday with top officials who he hopes will help this situation. A sign at Imperial Beach forbids swimming on Saturday, Sept. 21, 20 ..read more

A federal judge has sentenced a California man to serve 35 years in prison for traveling to Atlanta to have sex with a 9-year-old girl. The U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta said Tuesday that 40-year-old Craig Alan Castaneda of Imperial Beach, California, must also register as a sex offender and serve 10 years supervised release after his prison term. Castaneda was convicted in December. An undercover FBI agent posted an ad on Craigslist in April 2015 posing as a mother seeking a “teacher” for her 9-year-old daughter. Prosecutors say Castaneda responded, describing his prior experience molesti ..read more

Imperial Beach's entire shoreline has been closed to swimmers after sewage-contaminated runoff has flowed into California from Mexico's Tijuana River. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the San Diego County Department of Environment Health issued the order Sunday, expanding the closure that has been in place for months for part of the coast. Officials say more than 110 million gallons of toxic storm water has flowed north from Mexico since April. The closure will be in place until testing shows the water is safe. California and the cities of Imperial Beach and Chula Vista sued the ..read more

Former All-Star pitcher Esteban Loaiza was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to federal drug charges involving 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of cocaine that he admitted he planned to distribute. Loaiza, 46, was sentenced Friday more than a year after he was arrested near a house in Imperial Beach, a town south of San Diego that borders Tijuana, Mexico. Authorities obtained a search warrant for the house and found the cocaine in 20 packages under baseball bags bearing the star’s name inside the compartment of a Nissan minivan parked in the garage. The Tijuana-born hurler playe ..read more

While a ruptured pipe in Mexico continues to spill sewage into the Tijuana River, federal officials said that as of Friday morning the effluent was being captured at the border and diverted to a wastewater treatment facility. Pumps that are part of a diversion system in the Tijuana River have been cleared of debris and restarted, officials said, effectively ending the cross-border flow that reportedly began Monday night from a broken pipe that leaked millions of gallons and shuttered South Bay beaches. The waters off Imperial Beach remained off limits to swimmers on Friday, according to the Sa ..read more