Mexico–United States Border facts for kids


The United States–Mexico border is the international border between the United States and Mexico.
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.
The border's total length is 3,169 km (1,969 mi), according to figures given by the International Boundary and Water Commission. It is the most frequently crossed international border in the world, with approximately three hundred fifty million (350,000,000) crossings per year.
Images for kids
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The current border was originally decided after the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). Most of the border is settled on the Rio Grande River on the border of Texas and northeastern Mexico. To the left lies San Diego, California and on the right is Tijuana, Baja California. The building in the foreground on the San Diego side is a sewage treatment plant built to clean the Tijuana River.
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El Paso (left) and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua (right), taken on June 30, 2022 from the International Space Station with north oriented towards the bottom-left side. The Rio Grande appears as a thin line separating the two cities through the middle of the photograph. El Paso and Juarez make up the third largest U.S. international metroplex after Detroit–Windsor and San Diego-Tijuana.
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Climbing the Mexico–United States barrier fence in Brownsville, Texas
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Passport stamp upon arrival in Tijuana, Baja California land border crossing.
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Border Patrol agents in southern Texas in 2013.
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Mexicans crossing the Río Grande face the Big Bend National Park.
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Border Patrol patrolling the Rio Grande in an airboat in Laredo, Texas.
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U.S. Border Patrol helicopter along El Camino del Diablo, Arizona–Sonora border, 2004.
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Border between Nogales, Arizona, on the left, and Nogales, Sonora, on the right.
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On the left: Nogales, Arizona; on the right, Nogales, Sonora.
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Portion of border near Jacumba, California, in 2003.
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