Santa Teresa Port of Entry

During October, northbound commercial crossings at the Santa Teresa port of entry with Mexico hit a record 4,149 commercial vehicles. This was a 32 percent increase over October 2006. Jamie Campos, executive director of the New Mexico Border Authority says the increase came the port extended operating hours to 10 p.m. from the pervious close time of 6 p.m.

Jerry Pacheco of the International Business Accelerator in Santa Teresa says the increase in traffic has been in the 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. window. Truckers who might previously have missed the 6 p.m. closing now have a margin allowing them to get to Santa Teresa. 

The new hours began September 7, though crossing traffic did not jump until October.

Santa Teresa is 10 miles due west of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez as the crow flies. The port is ideally suited to serve south Juarez and shipping coming from the interior of Mexico, Pacheco says.