Southern US Border Entries

By Conner Gulley

The data below shows how many passenger vehicles entered at each port of entry in the southern US from the beginning of 1996 to March 1st, 2019. The larger circles, with numbers ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 over the above time period, are clearly centered in a few key areas - the short border with California, El Paso, and several cities on the southwestern Texas coast. The smaller dots, however, with an average ranging from 1,000 or less to 50,000 over the time period, tend to be in isolated places. Boquillas, for example, located on the Mexican-Texas border, is about midway between El Paso and the large immigration centers on the coast.

One can discern a number of startling facts from this graph; for starters, the staggering number of entrants into the US from Mexico. Keep in mind that this data only represents passenger vehicles entering the country; that does not include trucks, trains, passengers, bus passengers, and many more categories. Another thing to consider is the wide range of these ports of entry; they are not, for example, just centered in California or Texas. Instead, these large centers of personal movement are spread out across all the border states with varying levels of vehicles entering the country.

In light of this information, one can consider the age old question of how to manage immigration effectively with a stronger, more effective opinion based in fact.