In a recent episode of The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, Socorro Mayor Rudy Cruz detailed the transformation of this border city east of El Paso. Generations of irrigated farmland are being sold to developers as families abandon agriculture due to salty irrigation water, reduced allocations, and triple-digit summer heat. The city is establishing a foreign trade zone to attract manufacturing and logistics tenants that support cross-border trade with Mexico.
Mayor Cruz explained the challenges facing local farmers. “It’s sad to see the farmland going away… the water isn’t what it used to be. There’s a lot of salt here and the salt kills off a lot of those plants,” he told McKenzie. The shift is pushing younger generations into commercial and industrial deals rather than inheriting family farms.
Beyond economic changes, Cruz emphasized the city’s partnership with Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, one of only three federally recognized tribes in Texas. The collaboration includes building incubators on the former Braceros Farm site to help local entrepreneurs overcome startup costs. The tribe also secured federal highway dollars to rehabilitate an irrigation bridge that the city could not afford on its own.
Socorro is also leveraging its educational assets, with Socorro ISD offering 6A programs that allow students to earn associate’s degrees and barber licenses before graduating high school. Fort Bliss has shown interest in busing students into the district. The Mission Trail, a nine-mile corridor linking three 400-year-old adobe missions, has seen homes converted into restaurants, bistros, and breweries serving pecan and pomegranate beer, preserving centuries-old foodways.
Mayor Cruz highlighted the city’s unique appeal: “You want to see a building that was built by people with their own hands 400 years ago? Come down here and visit it. It’s an adobe structure built with these natural elements of wood and mud, but at the same time, it tells a story of the people that still reside here.”
The episode, titled “This Texas Border City Is Trading Farmland for Factories,” published July 13, 2026, is available now wherever podcasts are heard. The Building Texas Show profiles leaders shaping the Texas economy, from border trade zones to small-town Main Streets.
