El Paso

City and administrative headquarters of El Paso County, Texas, at the base of the Franklin Mountains, on the Rio Grande, opposite the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez; population (2000 est) 563,700. It is the centre of an agricultural and cattle-raising area, and there are electronics, food processing, packing, textile, and leather industries, as well as oil refineries and industries based on local iron and copper mines. With strong links to Mexico the economy particularly benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1992. There are several military installations in the area. The city is home to the University of Texas at El Paso (formerly Texas Western; founded in 1913).