May 6 (UPI) -- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Tuesday night that she will ask federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against two Mexican nationals accused of human smuggling resulting in the deaths of at least three migrants.
According to authorities, three migrants were killed Monday when a boat carrying them and 13 others overturned off the California coast. Seven of the passengers were still missing when Coast Guard officials called off the search Monday night.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged five people in connection to the human smuggling operation, including Mexican nationals Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 36, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 30. The pair, who were seemingly among those on the vessel, were arrested Monday night.
Noem announced her request to the Justice Department for the accused to face the death penalty if convicted in a statement, saying she will also formally ask Attorney General Pam Bondi for the pair to be swiftly prosecuted.
"The Department of Homeland Security will not tolerate this level of criminal depravity or reckless disregard for human life," she said. "We will continue to work with our federal partners to ensure justice is served and our laws upheld."
Coast Guard authorities said in a statement that they received word of the overturned panga skiff around 6:30 a.m. EDT Monday off Del Mar Beach. Three people were found deceased and four others were located in need of medical attention. A search was launched for seven others sill missing that was called off that night.
Among the deceased was a 14-year-old Indian boy. His 10-year-old sister is among those still unaccounted for.
Rodriguez-Leyva and Zuniga-Luna were detained by authorities on Del Mar Beach. Three others in vehicles believed to be connected to the smuggling event were later detained.
Federal prosecutors charged Rodriguez-Leyva and Zuniga-Luna with bringing in aliens resulting in death, which carries a maximum penalty of death or life in prison. They have also been charged with bringing in aliens for financial gain, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars.
"This tragedy is a stark reminder of the inhumanity and lethal danger inherent to human smuggling at sea," Noem said. "Their deaths were not only avoidable but were also the direct result of the greed and indifference of smugglers who exploited them."
There have been 16 federal executions since the reinstatement of the federal death penalty in 1988. Thirteen of those executions occurred during the final six months of the first Trump administration.
President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates in the days before handing over the White House to President Donald Trump, who on his first day of his second term issued an executive order instructing his Justice Department to "pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use," including "a capital crime committed by an illegal alien present in this country."
Noem's request comes as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown, attracting criticism for allegedly ignoring due rights by sending hundreds of alleged non-citizen gang members to a mega prison in El Salvador among seeking to deport other immigrants.
The Trump administration has boasted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have made tens of thousands of immigration-related arrests in the name of "Making America Safe Again."
