Mexico–United States border

The United States–Mexico border is the international border between the United States and Mexico.

The border between the United States and Mexico spans four U.S. states, six Mexican states, and has over twenty commercial railroad crossings.

Border at Tijuana (right) and southern California (left)

It runs from Imperial Beach, California, and Tijuana, Baja California, in the west to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, in the east. It covers a variety of terrains, ranging from major urban areas to inhospitable deserts.

From the Gulf of Mexico it follows the course of the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) to the border crossing at El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Westward from there it crosses vast tracts of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Desert. Then it crosses the Colorado River Delta, west to San Diego and Tijuana before reaching the Pacific Ocean. The US-Mexican border is considered an open border.^[1]

The border's total length is 3,169 km (1,969 mi), according to figures given by the International Boundary and Water Commission.^[2] It is the most frequently crossed international border in the world,^[3][4][5] with approximately three hundred fifty million (350,000,000) crossings per year.^[6][4]

References

1. "Mexican President's Visit Returns Immigration to the Spotlight | PBS NewsHour | May 20, 2010 | PBS". PBS. Archived from the original on 2014-01-21. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
2. "United States Section Directive" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
3. Edwin Mora (19 May 2010). "Senate Democratic Whip Compares Sealing the Mexican Border to Trying to Keep Drugs Off of I-95". Cybercast News Service. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
4. Golson, Barry; Thia Golson (2008). Retirement Without Borders: How to Retire Abroad--in Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, Costa Rica, Panama, and Other Sunny, Foreign Places. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-7432-9701-1. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
5. Glenday, Craig (2009). Guinness World Records 2009. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 457. ISBN 978-0-5535-9256-6. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
6. "US, Mexico open first new border crossing in 10 years". AFP. 12 January 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2011.