Border Intelligence · Census port data · all 22 land ports
The U.S.–Mexico Border
In September 2026, $87.8B in goods crossed the 22 land ports of entry, all modes. Laredo carried 44.3% of it.
Twenty-two doors, one race
Each bar is a port's trade over the 12 months that end in the month shown. Press play to run the ranking from the start of the record, or switch to trucks to see which doors carry the freight by count.
- 8BrownsvilleTX$21.6B2.4%
- 10Del RioTX$6.3B0.7%
- 6Eagle PassTX$45.6B5.1%
- 1LaredoTX$402.7B44.9%
- 5HidalgoTX$46.0B5.1%
- 12RomaTX$1.0B0.1%
- 4Santa TeresaNM$56.2B6.3%
- 3Otay MesaCA$64.6B7.2%
- 9Calexico EastCA$20.7B2.3%
- 11DouglasAZ$2.6B0.3%
- 7NogalesAZ$33.9B3.8%
- 2El Paso AreaTX$192.7B21.5%
Trade is Census imports plus exports by port, all modes. The El Paso Area combines Ysleta, El Paso and Tornillo, the Texas Comptroller's method. Trucks are BTS counts of trucks entering the United States.
One port, almost half
Laredo carried between 43.3% and 46.7% of the border's trade in every full year since 2018, and 44.8% in 2026 so far. No other door comes close.
El Paso breaks out
The El Paso Area held between 14.5% and 15.6% of border trade in every year through 2024. It crossed 20% in August 2025. In September 2026 it carried 22.4%: $19.7B in one month, against $9.4B two years earlier.
Texas pulls further ahead
Texas ports carried 77.4% of the border's trade in 2018 and 80% in 2026 so far. California, Arizona and New Mexico together went from 22.6% to 20%.
Where the trade lands
Monthly goods trade through each state's land ports, each on its own scale, with the last 12 months against the 12 before. Point at a line to read a month.
Every month at a glance
Each cell compares a month of border-wide goods trade with the same month a year earlier. Blue is growth, red is contraction, and the deeper the color, the bigger the move.
Mexico is the number one U.S. trading partner, and most of that trade settles on land at these ports rather than crossing an ocean. The story the deficit headlines miss is what the flows show: roughly 74 cents of every dollar of Mexican manufactured exports is North American content, so this trade builds a shared production base instead of draining one. That is what makes the land border the place where integration gets settled every day.
Watch how concentrated it is: a handful of Texas ports, led by Laredo, carry the bulk, so the system is only as resilient as its busiest crossings.
Figures are pulled from the Census and BTS APIs and refreshed every few minutes; each reflects the latest official release on the agency's schedule.
Covarrubias, D. (2026). The U.S.–Mexico Border: Trade and Crossings by Port of Entry. https://labs.drdanielcovarrubias.com/us-mexico-border.