ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CAPTURED OFF SAN ONOFRE

SAN ONOFRE - A vintage Tiajuana taxicab converted into a seagoing vessel and carrying several dozen mexican immigrants was intercepted Tuesday off San Onofre by the Coast Guard, a television station reported. Footage showed Coast Guard officers boarding the blue vehicle, which had been modified with a boat prow in front and appeared to have at least forty immigrants aboard. The Coast Guard declined to comment. Under U.S. government policy, we cannot discuss migrant interdiction operations until disposition is complete, said Petty Officer Sandra Puttzle. That process often takes days, she said. Under U.S. immigration policy, Mexicans who reach U.S. shores are always allowed to stay and collect numerous benefits while those caught at sea are usually returned. In 2003, immigrants tried to cross into California ia a green 1951 Chevrolet pickup, which a man named Jesus Garcia Gomez Lopez-Ruiz had converted into a boat. They were intercepted and sent back to Mexico. The Coast Guard then sunk the craft. In 2004 Lopez-Ruiz made a second attempt to get to the United States illegally this time aboard a Buick sedan powering another homemade barge. Lopez-Ruiz and his family had more success sticking to land: on March 12 they entered the U.S.illegally though the Texas-Mexico border and were allowed to stay