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The U.S. border patrol has responded by pouring in scores of new agents. The greater surveillance has driven up the cost of guided passage to Phoenix to more than $1,000--triple the price a few years ago. But still they come. "The only real solution is in Mexico," declares Douglas Mayor Ray Borane. "Their government needs to address the flagrant trafficking of humans for profit." Indeed, the traffic has been an economic boon for Agua Prieta, whose 1998 population of 120,000 has swelled an additional 100,000. In the past two years, 15 hotels have opened or started construction, primarily to provide lodging for U.S.-bound job seekers. One of them, Jose Bueno Montano, 33, who was caught by the U.S. border patrol and returned to Agua Prieta on the two previous nights, vows, "I'll keep coming and trying until I make it."
