Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill is criticizing California’s sanctuary state law after a boat with 21 migrants was intercepted by U.S. military off the city’s coastline, saying more mayors need to become vocal with concerns.
The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Narwhal, which is homeported in Newport Harbor, noticed around 7 p.m. on Nov. 14 a 34-foot vessel just a mile offshore acting “suspiciously” and sent out a patrol boat to investigate, authorities said. Coast Guard personnel found 21 people aboard, including 18 people from Mexico, one Russian citizen and two people from Uzbekistan, and they were taken into custody and transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The boat was one of three with migrants federal officials intercepted that week off of Newport Beach, said 1st Petty Officer Loumania Stewart, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard’s Los Angeles sector.
From October 2023 to September 2024, there were 561 boats stopped off Southern California, between the border and northern Ventura County, and 273 people were arrested, according to the Coast Guard. Those numbers include reports from partner agencies.
The response depends on which agency pulls up to a boat, and that makes a big difference, O’Neill said.
With the passage of the California Values Act (SB 54), also referred to by some as a sanctuary state law, local and state law enforcement officials are prohibited from investigating, interrogating, detaining or arresting people for immigration enforcement purposes.
“This case is catching people’s attention for two reasons,” O’Neill said. “First, what the heck are people from Uzbekistan and from Russia doing trying to come across the border through Orange County? It highlights how incredibly difficult it is for coastal communities to deal with the sanctuary state law that got passed in 2018.”
Coast Guard data suggests an increase in vessels trying to make landings off Southern California. In fiscal year 2023, 737 boats were stopped, and 1,385 people were arrested. The previous year, there were 669 boats stopped, with 2,561 people arrested.
Comparatively, in the four years from 2012 to 2016, the same agencies reported 658 boats, carrying 3,247 migrants, were stopped.
Most often, the boats are “pangas,” simple, rugged and nimble vessels designed decades ago for fishermen, but in recent years they have become popular among smugglers at sea. But other crafts, such as pleasure crafts and actual fishing vessels, are used.
In Newport Beach, the Coast Guard and Orange County’s Sheriff Harbor Patrol are stationed in the harbor. OCSD provides local law enforcement at the harbor and coordinates with the Newport Beach Police Department. Harbor Patrol works calls that include assisting vessels in distress, enforcing harbor navigation codes, responding to boat fires and search and rescue calls, but if there is a boat of migrants coming up the coast looking to land ashore, the law enforcement agency is limited on what it can and can’t do, O’Neill said.
“In this case, the U.S. military literally caught a boat that had people trying to sneak in and the federal government can stop a boat and turn them into the federal authorities,” O’Neill said. “But local law enforcement in the exact same situation is handcuffed from Sacramento from doing the exact same thing. Any policy encouraging people to just get to land and evade federal authorities is a dangerous approach.”
Sheriff Don Barnes said various circumstances dictate certain responses, but the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is prohibited from communicating with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“If they are just migrants coming up the coast, we cannot intervene based on how SB 54 has written their laws,” Barnes said. “If it’s human trafficking, we can detain. The problem is, if we detain, will ICE be able to come and handle that intervention? They’re resource-challenged.”
“The majority of people on panga boats are willingly paying to be transported up the coast, they are not being taken against their will,” Barnes added. “That would not be an intervention we can intervene on.”
Newport Beach, along with at least 11 other Orange County cities, opposed SB 54 when the law was enacted.
O’Neill said he expects there to be greater pushback from local leaders and the public, especially in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to take a firmer approach on immigration.
“President Trump has been campaigning on this issue and has certainly indicated that he is going to treat immigration differently than the Biden Administration,” O’Neill said. “But, what should give a lot of communities pause, and certainly a lot of mayors pause, is the idea that Gov. Newsom and other places like the city of Los Angeles are talking about Trump-proofing California. As far as I can tell, that means they’re going to do everything they can to stop him. They can’t have so much animus toward President Trump that it allows them to make bad policy.”
Mai Do, research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, said she is aware of O’Neill’s criticism of SB 54 and criticized the mayor for taking an opportunity to “take advantage of the public’s insecurity.”
“Instead of doing their job and lifting communities out of poverty, politicians are blaming immigrants,” she said. “Instead of making it easier to build more housing, instead of stabilizing rents and rebuilding public spaces and libraries, they’re trying to deflect from their own unwillingness to actually put tax dollars to work for the public good and public safety by blaming immigrants for just coming here to build a better life for their families.”
Do said she expects to hear more immigration discussions at the local level because politicians are taking advantage of people feeling unsafe and using it to advance their “own exclusionary agendas.”
O’Neill said he’s gotten feedback from other mayors in Southern California on his recent comments regarding the state law.
Mayors have an obligation to stand up and speak out, O’Neill said. “Mayors have a special place in society that allows them to speak out. More city leaders need to speak out about this issue.”
When the law protects “people trying to get smuggled in from landlocked central Asian countries through the Mexican border, the policies are broken,” he said. “The problem is people are talking past each other.”
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