Falcon Dam Port of Entry is a

port of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border control, border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not impo ...

to the United States on the Mexican border. The

Falcon Dam Falcon Dam () is an earthen embankment dam on the Rio Grande between Starr County, Texas, Starr County in the U.S. state of Texas and the city of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The dam was built for water conservation, i ...

was built in 1954 "as part of a joint U.S.-Mexico project to collect water for flood control, hydroelectric power and water for drinking and agriculture." The Falcon Dam Port of Entry is essentially a replacement for the former Zapata Port of Entry, which was situated at a bridge in the town of

Zapata, Texas Zapata is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Zapata County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,383 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. As an unincorporated community, Zapata has no municipal government, b ...

. When the dam was completed, the town was moved to higher ground, and the Zapata Bridge now lies at the bottom of Falcon Lake. A five-year safety study of dams along the U.S. - Mexico border, which includes Falcon Dam, done at the behest of the

International Boundary and Water Commission The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC, , CILA) is an international body created by the United States and Mexico in 1889 to apply the rules for determining the location of their international boundary when meandering rivers trans ...

"yielded urgent and high-priority deficiencies at five of the six dams." The study for the IBWC was conducted by Joint Technical Advisors, which includes the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

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