How would Texas's ports and border crossings operate?

They would operate the way they do now, under Texas authority, moving the same goods across the same docks and bridges. The ports and crossings are physically in Texas, run by Texans, and already among the busiest in the world. Independence puts them fully under Texas control, where the revenue and the rules stay home.

These are world-class assets, and they are already Texan

Texas does not come to this question short-handed. Texas operates eight of the top 25 deepwater ports in the United States. The Port of Houston is the No. 1 U.S. port by foreign waterborne tonnage. And Laredo is now the single highest-value port of entry in the entire country, moving about $340 billion in trade in 2024, the first land crossing ever to lead the nation. These are not facilities that depend on Washington to function. They are built, staffed, and run in Texas, and they keep running on independence.

Ports and crossings already process international trade every day

Here is the key point that dissolves the worry. Texas ports and border crossings are already in the business of handling international trade. The Port of Houston clears goods from all over the world. The Laredo crossings process goods moving between the United States and Mexico, two separate countries, around the clock. The customs machinery, the inspection lanes, the brokers, and the logistics are already built for cross-border commerce. An independent Texas does not have to invent any of that. It already operates it daily.

Texas would run its own customs, the way every country does

On independence, Texas would establish its own customs and border service, one of the genuinely new functions the report accounts for, to administer the crossings it already operates. This is standard for any country, and a large share of it pays for itself through the fees and duties that customs services collect. The crossings keep clearing goods. The difference is that Texas sets the rules and keeps the revenue, instead of operating federal customs and sending the proceeds to Washington.

Continuity at the line is the shared goal

The crossings stay low-friction because both sides want goods to keep moving. A free-trade arrangement with the United States, in Washington's interest too, keeps tariffs off and lanes open. The U.S.-Mexico crossings already run on agreements between two countries, proof that a busy border can be a fast border. Through the transition, existing arrangements continue while the details are settled, so the docks and bridges do not seize up. They keep doing exactly what they do now.

The bottom line

Texas ports and border crossings keep operating, run by Texas, clearing the same goods on the same terms. They are already among the busiest international gateways on Earth, already built for cross-border trade, and independence simply puts them, and the revenue they generate, fully in Texas hands.