110 Chinese Immigrants Seized in Baja California

Mexican authorities said Friday that they had detained more than 100 Chinese nationals believed to have come ashore on the Baja California coast this week in an attempt to get into the United States.

Five Mexican nationals were also being held on suspicion of helping the immigrants enter Mexico illegally, said Roberto Perez Jacobo, the top Mexican immigration official in Baja California.

Perez said authorities rounded up 110 people during an overnight search south of Ensenada.

Five of the immigrants were suffering from dehydration but the others were reported to be in good condition. The group was scheduled to be transferred by bus to a shelter in Tijuana.

A search was under way for any other immigrants in the area of Cabo Colonet, about an hour’s drive south of Ensenada, officials said.

The arrests mark the third sizable group of Chinese immigrants apprehended in the Ensenada area in recent months.

Baja California’s remote coastline has long been a transit point for Asian immigrants who pay smugglers thousands of dollars to shuttle them by sea en route to the United States. Local officials say that they have noted an increase in arrests.

“A lot of Chinese are trying to get to the United States. . . . We’ve captured several hundred Chinese around Ensenada--a lot more than the previous year,” said Rodolfo Gutierrez Vivanco, assistant to Ensenada’s police chief.

A group of 89 Chinese nationals have been held in Tijuana’s municipal auditorium for a month while awaiting deportation. Mexican officials said the delays have resulted from efforts by the Chinese government to identify the immigrants.

In June, Ensenada authorities captured 176 Chinese immigrants and six suspected smugglers in separate groups south of Ensenada and in a safehouse in the city. The immigrants eventually were flown back to China by Mexican immigration.

Gutierrez said Ensenada police found the latest group--96 men and 14 women--hiding in several private houses. The group was located during a three-day search after a civilian saw a suspicious ship off the coast, he said.