At least eight people have been killed after two migrant-smuggling boats capsized off the California coast near San Diego, marking one of the deadliest maritime human-smuggling operations in US history.
Authorities said on Sunday local time that the boats ran into trouble in shallow but treacherous surf amid heavy fog.
A Spanish-speaking woman on one of the panga-style boats called 911 to report the other vessel overturned in waves at Black's Beach, authorities said.
She said there were 15 people on the capsized vessel and eight on her boat.
Coast Guard and San Diego Fire-Rescue crews pulled the bodies of eight adults from the water, but fog hampered the search for additional victims.
The Coast Guard announced on Twitter that the search was suspended at 3:30pm local time on Sunday.
Survivors may have escaped on land, including the woman who called 911. Authorities said they did not know her whereabouts.
San Diego Lifeguard Chief James Gartland said rescuers found the two boats overturned in shallow waters when they arrived. Surf was modest, with swells around 1 metre, but skies were foggy and black.
"That area is very hazardous, even in the daytime," Mr Gartland said.
"It has a series of sandbars and in-shore rip currents, so you can think that you can land in some sand or get to waist-high, knee-high water and think that you're able to be safe to exit the water, but there's long, in-shore holes.
"If you step into those holes, those rip currents will pull you along the shore and back out to sea."
Black's Beach is about 24 kilometres north of downtown San Diego in a secluded area, not far from the popular La Jolla Shores.
Its reputation for some of the best waves in Southern California draws many surfers.
Hundreds of maritime smuggling operations occur every year off California's coast and sometimes turn fatal.
In May 2021, a packed boat carrying migrants capsized and broke apart in powerful surf along the rocky San Diego coast, killing three people and injuring more than two dozen others.
Smuggling off the California coast has long been a risky alternative for migrants to avoid heavily guarded land borders.
Pangas enter from Mexico in the dead of night, sometimes charting hundreds of miles north.
Recreational boats try to mix in unnoticed with fishing and pleasure vessels during the day.
South of the US border, there are many secluded, private beaches with gated entrances between high-rises with magnificent ocean views, some only partially built because funds dried up during construction.
At least some of the victims were Mexican, according to the consulate in San Diego, but how many was unknown.
Illegal crossings have soared under President Joe Biden, with many migrants turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents and being released in the US to pursue their cases in immigration court.
AP/ABC
