El Paso is a border town, meeting at West Texas's westernmost point and sits the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border. This city also shares a culture with its south of the border neighbor, Ciudad Juárez. El Paso was the city tourists visited to attend the Mexican Revolution play-out just over the border in Juárez in 1911.

El Paso has a highly expanded industrial structure focusing on primary metals, petroleum and gas operations, food products, and garments. Its copper-lead custom smelter and electrolytic copper refinery process a significant portion of the nation's copper. Fort Bliss, the William Beaumont General Hospital, and nearby White Sands Missile Range also play an important role in increasing El Paso's economy. Also headquartered in El Paso are the Drug Enforcement Administration domestic field division 7, El Paso Intelligence Center, Joint Task Force North, United States Border Patrol El Paso Sector, and U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Group.

The fact might seem surprising, given that the city is relatively poor, with a median household income of $40,800 and a poverty rate of 23.4 percent and a high community of immigrants. 20% of the people for whom poverty status is defined in El Paso, TX, live below the poverty line, which is higher than the national average of 13.1%. The largest demographic residing in poverty are women 25 - 34, followed by men 6 - 11, and then women 35 - 44. The most apparent racial or ethnic group existing below the poverty line in El Paso, TX, is Hispanic.

Today, El Paso is known for its significant military presence that Fort Bliss anchors, but it has an up-and-coming culinary scene on the flip side. With a burgeoning list of top-notch restaurants, museums, and theatres, this is a town worth getting to know.

Ciudad Juárez is a Mexican city on the Rio Grande, just south of El Paso, Texas. Earlier known as El Paso del Norte, it was renamed in 1888 for the Mexican president Benito Juárez, who headquartered there in 1865–66 through his struggle against the French. Juárez is the seat of the Juárez Municipality with an approximated population of 1.5 million people.

Additionally, Juárez County possesses the second largest number of maquiladoras in Mexico. The community of almost 545,000 in 1980 had more than doubled by the beginning of the 21st century. However, city services have not kept up with the growing population, and for this reason, there was substantial environmental pollution, extensive squatter settlements in remote areas, and rising rates of violent crime.

Crime and violence remain a matter of concern throughout Chihuahua, especially in the south and Sierra Mountains, including Copper Canyon. In contrast, there is no evidence of convicts. Citizens moving to Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua's city must be careful and protected against robbery, carjacking, theft, and burglary.

• Ciudad Juarez’s deadliest years:
  • In 2010- 3,158 homicides
  • In 2009- 2,667 homicides
  • In 2011- 1,967 homicides
  • In 2019- 1,500 homicides
  • In 2018- 1,247 homicides

The Chihuahua state government and the Ciudad Juarez city government have taken steps to overcome extortion with mixed results. Large businesses (including manufacturing plants) are not safe from extortion. However, they are less likely to get targeted. A frequent extortion method involves a telephone call in which the perpetrators threaten to harm the person if they refuse to pay for protection. These telephone calls are often random and can begin from outside of the state, sometimes from inside Mexican prisons.