San Clemente leaders are working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to add cameras along the city’s beach and pier with the aim of apprehending people trying to enter the country illegally.
On Tuesday, members of the City Council asked City Manager Andy Hall to meet with CBP agents to install and monitor the cameras, which officials said were intended to curb illegal panga landings as restrictions on border entries tighten.
Mayor Steven Knoblock told The Times that South American criminals were a motivation for the operation.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer patrols in a truck along the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Imperial Beach, San Diego, on Jan. 25, 2025.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“San Clemente has had significant crime issues with the sophisticated Chilean burglary rings hitting our neighborhoods on a very systematic basis and continues to be a problem,” Knoblock said via email. “Our local police services are doing a good job of keeping our neighborhoods protected. The camera project will provide additional security for our citizens.”
The city’s move comes after council members declined to back a push by Knoblock to join a lawsuit brought by Huntington Beach against Gov. Gavin Newsom and Dist. Atty. Rob Bonta over California’s sanctuary law, or California Values Act.
The law limits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.
San Clemente doesn’t have its own police force but is patrolled by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which the sheriff has said “does not enforce federal immigration law.”
The camera project, however, means the city can work with federal immigration officials. The mayor originally presented the project as being staffed by local volunteers, the Orange County Register reported. But council members decided Tuesday to turn to the CBP to do the surveillance.
Knoblock says the city has seen a recent uptick in immigrants lacking documentation arriving in late-night and early-morning hours via pangas. The small, outboard-powered boat is typically used for fishing.
Panga vessels are often used to smuggle migrants and narcotics, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s website. In 2021, federal agents coordinated with local authorities to halt 12 smuggling operations in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
About 90 individuals who were in the country illegally were apprehended along the coastline of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Long Beach, San Pedro, Malibu, Newport Beach and Santa Catalina Island.
The small boats arriving at San Clemente beaches bring about 15 to 20 individuals each, according to city officials.
“People have observed pangas crammed with illegal aliens, hitting our beach, and then scattering in the community or jumping into a van, which is parked nearby and ready to receive them,” Knoblock said. “Many of the landings occur at night.”
Knoblock said the cameras will operate 24/7 and will be placed on the San Clemente Pier and multiple homeowner association structures between the northern and southern ends of the beach to provide federal agents with about seven miles of surveillance.
“I’m recommending the cameras being aimed oceanward with a rotating telescopic lens and thermal imaging for night viewing,” Knoblock said. “This additional visibility will hopefully provide interdiction prior to [migrants] hitting our beaches.”
The city is also looking to provide open viewing access to the public — similar to its current livestreaming coverage of San Clemente Beach.
Daily Pilot staff writer Gabriel San Román contributed to this report.
