re: Are there ANY safe places to cross into Mexico?

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One thing I don’t think the build the wall crowd realizes is that thousands of people cross the boarder in both directions every day for short trips, to go to school, go to work, go shopping. It’s all legal and only requires a drivers license. A wall wouldn’t change that and you’d have to build the wall around border towns as well.

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So, they’re entering the country legally, which is exactly what we want them to do. Nobody is trying to keep Mexicans out, we just don’t want a free-for-all at the border for those choosing to bypass official entry points. If those entering legally overstay, well that’s when ICE kicks them out.

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Guadalajara

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Guadalajara won't do.

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Places to definitely stay away from:
Tijuana

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Why? This is probably the safest place to cross at

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’ve crossed at Del Rio and Eagle Pass many years ago. Surely that is different now. Anybody visit Mexicali, Tecate, Juarez, or Nogales?

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Juarez is the most dangerous city in the world.

My buddy's wife (no pics) and several of her friends did their bachelorette party in Puerto Penasco. They flew into Phoenix and drove down from there and had no issues.

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Places to definitely stay away from:
Tijuana
Nuevo Laredo
Matamoros

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I don’t know how much safer Nuevo Laredo is than Matamoros, but the Mexicans that work for me on the H2A program refuse to cross at Matamoros. They want to cross at Nuevo Laredo. They avoid Matamoros like the plague.

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I’ve crossed at Del Rio and Eagle Pass many years ago. Surely that is different now.

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I am on a deer lease about 3 hours into Mexico. I used to cross in Laredo and Eagle Pass but stopped back in 2007-2008. Since then I have been crossing at the International Bridge about 15-18 miles or so from Laredo. Heading South on 35 from Encinal you take a right on the toll road that runs all the way to the border... 15 miles or so. No toll booth, must have Texas Tag or they will just send you a bill. I think Toll Road is 255.

The crossing is primarily a commercial crossing so plenty of 18 wheelers. Also, it is not a 24 hour operation. The only issue you might have at this crossing is around the holidays or on Saturday/Sunday morning coming out if you get there past 9am. Do this and expect to wait an hour or more to get back into the U.S. The Sat/Sun around Christmas can be a 6-8 hour wait. If coming out of the ranch we leave at 4:30am and this puts us back at the border around 7:30am before lines start. Easy.

As for safety.. this is one of the best crossings. There is no town on either side of the border. Once you cross into Mexico the border crossing road immediately Ts into Hwy 2. There is a Pemex station here. Take a left here and you go to the outskirts of Laredo in 15 minutes. Take a right and that goes to Eagle Pass. I take a right and then just a mile or so down I take a left on hwy 1. However, 98% of the time since 2009 there is a military checkpoint there and a mobile xray machine that all vehicles pass through. There is no way around the checkpoint. Bad guys avoid roads where they could get trapped. As I said I take a left and in about 40 minutes hit the hwy that runs from Laredo to Anahuac. I take a right toward Anahuac. There is another military checkpoint about 4-5 miles before Anahuac and no way around it. I go through Anahuac and then into Lampazzos. About 3-4 outside Lampazzos there is another military checkpoint. From Lampazzos we are on ranch roads for over an hour to our ranch.

The other advice I usually give and follow is travel early in Mexico. Years ago I would cross into Mexico in the afternoon and not get to the ranch until dark. No more. I am at the border when it opens and head to the ranch. As I said I leave the ranch early and get to the border early coming back. Most of the shite down there... like anywhere in the U.S. is not happening in the morning. Also, there is plenty of drinking and driving still going on down there so there is that risk as well at night.

Been hunting down there at the same ranch since 2003. I drive my hunting truck from Sugar Land, TX to the ranch 4 -5 times a year... every year. I know what I am talking about. Here is a photo of the front windshield of my hunting truck. You can see I go through car permits a lot down there.

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My cousin in O&G went To Mexico for work and got held hostage, company had to pony up ransom to get them home. Stay the frick out of Mexico minus resort towns that pay cartel/gangs/private security to protect tourists.

Anyone with experience in Chiappas? My adopted daughter has family there and we would like to take her there to meet them.

According to Wikipedia's list of most dangerous cities in the world (homicides per 100,000 residents), 5 of the top 8 are in Mexico.

1 Los Cabos Mexico 369 328,245 111.33
2 Caracas Venezuela 3,387 3,046,104 111.19
3 Acapulco Mexico 910 853,646 106.63
4 Natal Brazil 1,378 1,343,573 102.56
5 Tijuana Mexico 1,897 1,882,492 100.77
6 La Paz Mexico 259 305,455 84.79
7 Fortaleza Brazil 3,270 3,917,279 83.48
8 Ciudad Victoria Mexico 301 361,078 83.32
9 Ciudad Guayana Venezuela 728 906,879 80.28
10 Belém Brazil 1,743 2,441,761 71.38
11 Vitória da Conquista Brazil 245 348,718 70.26
12 Culiacán Mexico 671 957,613 70.10
13 St. Louis United States 205 311,404 65.83
14 Maceió Brazil 658 1,029,129 63.94
15 Cape Town South Africa 2,493 4,004,793 62.25
16 Kingston Jamaica 705 1,180,771 59.71
17 San Salvador El Salvador 1,057 1,789,588 59.06
18 Aracaju Brazil 560 951,073 58.88
19 Feira de Santana Brazil 369 627,477 58.81
20 Ciudad Juárez Mexico 814 1,448,859 56.16
21 Baltimore United States 341 614,664 55.48
22 Recife Brazil 2,180 3,965,699 54.96
23 Maturín Venezuela 327 600,722 54.43
24 Guatemala City Guatemala 1,705 3,187,293 53.49
25 Salvador Brazil 2,071 4,015,205 51.58
26 San Pedro Sula Honduras 392 765,864 51.18
27 Valencia Venezuela 784 1,576,071 49.74
28 Cali Colombia 1,261 2,542,876 49.59
29 Chihuahua Mexico 460 929,884 49.48
30 João Pessoa Brazil 554 1,126,613 49.17
31 Obregón Mexico 166 339,000 48.96
32 San Juan Puerto Rico 169 347,052 48.70
33 Barquisimeto Venezuela 644 1,335,348 48.23
34 Manaus Brazil 1,024 2,130,264 48.07
35 Distrito Central (Tegucigalpa) Honduras 588 1,224,897 48.00
36 Tepic Mexico 237 503,330 47.09
37 Palmira Colombia 144 308,669 46.65
38 Reynosa Mexico 294 701,525 41.95
39 Porto Alegre Brazil 1,748 4,268,083 40.96
40 Macapá Brazil 191 474,706 40.24
41 New Orleans United States 157 391,495 40.10
42 Detroit United States 267 672,795 39.69
43 Mazatlán Mexico 192 488,281 39.32
44 Durban South Africa 1,396 3,661,911 38.12
45 Campos dos Goytacazes Brazil 184 490,288 37.53
46 Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth) South Africa 474 1,263,051 37.53
47 Campina Grande Brazil 153 410,332 37.29
48 Teresina Brazil 315 850,198 37.05
49 Vitoria Brazil 707 1,960,213 36.07
50 Cúcuta Colombia 290 833,743 34.78

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