El Paso
Binational economy with Juárez: 97% of maquila goods flow north, $72B border trade. Fort Bliss ($27.9B impact) provides stability. Population stagnant as residents flee to other Sun Belt cities.
El Paso and Ciudad Juárez function as a single economic organism separated by a line on a map. Ninety-seven percent of Juárez's manufactured goods flow north to the United States. Six out of ten formally employed workers in Juárez work inside a maquiladora. When maquiladora output increases 10%, El Paso's transportation employment rises 5.3%. The two cities share labor markets, supply chains, and vulnerability to trade policy.
The maquiladora system began in the 1960s and exploded after NAFTA in 1994. El Paso became the American side of a cross-border manufacturing zone, handling $72 billion in border trade—20.3% of all Texas-Mexico commerce. Industrial parks on both sides of the border teem with warehousing, trucking, packaging, and logistics operations. What began as textile manufacturing has diversified into automotive, electronics, biomedical devices, and aerospace components. The integration runs so deep that tariff threats from Washington send shock waves through both cities.
Fort Bliss provides the other economic anchor. The largest employer in the region supports over 160,000 people directly and contributed $27.9 billion to the Texas economy in 2023. With 28,784 active-duty personnel and 80,000 military retirees, Fort Bliss functions as a city within a city—providing stability that buffers against maquiladora volatility.
Population stands at 679,000 city, 996,000 metro—but growth has been the slowest since the Great Depression, as El Pasoans migrate to faster-growing Sun Belt cities seeking better opportunities. The city is attempting to pivot: a new 250-acre Advanced Manufacturing District aims to create 17,000 jobs, $40 million in federal funds targets an aerospace cluster, and $20 million from the Texas Space Commission will support a Space Force facility. By 2026, whether these bets can offset the city's dependence on cross-border manufacturing—and its exposure to tariff politics—will determine if El Paso remains a vibrant binational hub or becomes a monument to globalization's vulnerabilities.