Tecate is a smaller mountain community of perhaps 100,000 people, located 30 miles east of Tijuana and on the US - Mexico International Border. Growth is fairly stabile, with the mass of northern migration still lured to the City of Tijuana. Known best for its brewery of the same name, Tecate is still a small Mexican city, nestled in the scenic hills at the foot of Mount Cuchuma.

Baja California Norte, or BCN, encompasses the northern half of Mexico's Baja peninsula. It is a region that depends largely upon its industrial base, commerce, fishing agriculture, and of course, a booming tourist trade. Major cities include Tijuana, Tecate, the state capital Mexicali, and the Pacific seaside city of Ensenada. The bulk of the migration by illegal immigrants comes not from Baja, but rather from Central America and the interior of Mexico following a centuries old trading route north along the eastern side of the Golfo de California, in the Mexican State of Sonora.

Westernmost border state of Mexico, possesses long and mostly beautiful Pacific coastline. Tecate rests on the US border, 50 direct miles east of the Pacific Ocean.

Best known for the Tecate brewery, the city is still primarily a tourist destination with a very agreeable climate and only occasion rain. The Rancho La Puerta is still a popular spa getaway for Southern California's jet set. The community is predominantly an agricultural one, with stabile families that have lived there for many generations.

Maquiladoras grew from smaller assembly shops that were originally in Tijuana, and fled the high costs and overcrowding that accelerated in the 1980's. Of Tecate's 110 maquilas, very few employ more than 100 people, of a combined total employed under 6,000.

Once crossed over the border, trucks find quick Interstate access to Southern California: 45 miles North to San Diego and port facilities; 105 miles North to Los Angeles on I-5; and 690 miles East to El Paso, Texas and mid-point of the Border.