The Border Boomtown Trend

"With vigilance increasing at larger, more traditional crossings along the 2,000-mile US-Mexico border, a growing number of would-be US immigrants - and the human smugglers that are paid to guide them there - are choosing small towns like El Hongo as staging grounds. And they are creating boomtowns in their wake.

...This phenomenon of border boomtowns sprouting up is often traced back to 1994, when US authorities boosted enforcement around the San Diego-Tijuana area as part of Operation Gatekeeper. This pushed migrant traffic to smaller towns to the east."