About the town » Nogales, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States

Nogales is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 20,837 at the 2010 census and estimated 20,948 in 2011. The city is the county seat of Santa Cruz County. Nogales, Arizona, borders the city of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, and is Arizona's largest international border town. The southern terminus of Interstate 19 is located in Nogales at the U.S. -Mexico border; the highway continues south into Mexico as Mexico Federal Highway 15. The highways meeting in Nogales comprise a major intersection in the CANAMEX Highway, connecting Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Nogales also is the beginning of the Sun Corridor, an economically important trade region stretching from Nogales to Prescott, AZ, including the Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan areas. Nogales is home to 4 International Ports of Entry, including the Morley Pedestrian Port of Entry, Dennis Deconcini Pedestrian and Passenger Vehicle Port of Entry, Nogales International Airport, and the Mariposa Port of Entry with up to 20 inspection lanes when the $200 million upgrade is finished. The new Nogales-Mariposa Port of Entry will have 12 passenger vehicle inspection lanes and 8 commercial inspection lanes. Due to its ideal location on the border and its major ports of entry, Nogales funnels $26 billion dollars worth of international trade into Arizona and the United States a year in fresh produce and manufactured goods from Mexico and the world through the deep sea port in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. This trade helps to support tens of thousands of jobs and the overall economies in Ambos Nogales and throughout the American state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora. Known in O'odham as Nowa:l, the name Nogales means "black walnuts" in Spanish, and the walnut trees which once grew abundantly in the mountain pass between the cities of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, can still be found around the town.