The Laredo
Corridor.
The busiest land port of entry in the hemisphere, in real time and in trend. Live border wait times, monthly crossings, and the trade behind the #1 U.S.–Mexico gateway.
Laredo is a manufacturing corridor, not a commodity one. The same families of goods, vehicles, machinery, and electronics, dominate both directions because parts and finished products cross and re-cross the border inside one production system. That's why about 85% of the value moves by truck and why Port Laredo sits number one for U.S. trade with Mexico. It also means this corridor rises and falls with North American manufacturing, not any single commodity price.
Watch the import and export lines together: when they move in step the production system is healthy, and when they diverge a supply chain is repricing.
Border Wait Times Everywhere
CBP · Laredo now, every U.S.–Mexico port next · ~10 min · as of 2026-09-13 13:56 UTCOne gateway, four readings
Top 5 U.S. ports of entry by trade value
U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Indicators Division · Rolling 12 months · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026 · as of 2026-09-13 13:56 UTCTotal import and export trade value, all modes. Laredo ranks #2 among every U.S. port of entry, and #1 for trade with Mexico.
Same goods, both directions
Imports (northbound)
Census HS2 · into the U.S. · Rolling 12 mo · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026Exports (southbound)
Census HS2 · out of the U.S. · Rolling 12 mo · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026Laredo is a manufacturing supply-chain corridor, not a commodity corridor. The same families of goods, machinery, vehicles, and electronics, dominate both directions: components and finished goods crossing and re-crossing the border inside one production system.
Truck crossings, monthly
BTS · last 37 months · hover to readThe Number One U.S. Land Port of Entry
BTS · trailing 12-mo trucks · share of all SW-border portsRail crossings
Trains · monthlyPassenger vehicles
Personal vehicles · monthlyOver 740,000 people. One supply chain.
Laredo, Texas
Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Bridge activity
Trailing 12 mo85% of corridor trade moves by truck
By value · CensusWhere Laredo's imports come from
Census · 2025 · by country of originMexico dominates, but the goods crossing Laredo originate in dozens of countries. Country of origin, not just port of entry, is where tariff exposure lives.
From data to policy
A joint U.S.–Mexico customs processing model to eliminate redundant inspections, co-authored with Ambassador Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández.
Trilateral coordination for supply-chain resilience and industrial competitiveness across the USMCA bloc.
From the op-eds
All writing →Live figures are pulled directly from the source APIs at view time; current figures reflect the latest official release on each agency's schedule.
Covarrubias, D. (2026). The Corridor: Laredo–Nuevo Laredo Trade Intelligence. https://labs.drdanielcovarrubias.com/corridor.
Full sources & methodology
Public U.S. & Mexican government data unless noted- Truck, rail, vehicle, and pedestrian crossings: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Border Crossing/Entry Data (monthly, ~2-month lag).
- Live bridge waits: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Wait Times (updated every ~10 minutes).
- Trade value: U.S. Census Bureau international trade data and Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development analysis. Port Laredo 2025 = $353.94B; broader Laredo Customs District = $481.8B.
- Peso / USD: Banco de México FIX rate (the official USD/MXN reference, SIE series SF63528), with the European Central Bank reference rate as fallback.
- Industrial market and investment: City of Laredo Building Development Services and TCBEED, “Building on Trade” (Covarrubias, 2026).
- Nuevo Laredo data: INEGI, ICCE Nuevo Laredo Prontuario Socioeconómico 2025, IMSS employment statistics.
- Employment exposure: TAMIU TCBEED trilateral employment vulnerability analysis (Covarrubias & Lozano, 2025).