International Boundary and Water Commission
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 transferred tracts of land from one bank to the other
The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC, Spanish: Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas, CILA) is the international organization that applies the rules for determining the location of the international boundary between the United States and Mexico, as established under the Convention of November 12, 1884.
The IBWC was created in 1889 as the International Boundary Commission by the Convention of 1889 between the United States and Mexico, and it was given its present name under a 1944 treaty. Under these agreements, the IBWC has a US section (headquartered in El Paso, Texas) and a Mexican section (headquartered in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua). The U.S. section is administered by the Department of State, while the Mexican part by the Secretariat of Foreign Relations.
Administration
Some of the rights and obligations administered by the IBWC include:
Distribution between the two countries of the waters of the Rio Grande and of the Colorado River
Regulation and conservation of the waters of the Rio Grande for their use by the two countries by joint construction, operation, and maintenance of international storage dams and reservoirs and plants for generating hydroelectric energy at the dams
Protection of lands along the river from floods by levee and floodway projects
Solution of border sanitation and other border water quality problems
Preservation of the Rio Grande and Colorado River as the international boundary
Demarcation of the land boundary
The U.S. and Mexican commissioners meet at least weekly, alternating the place of meetings, and are in almost daily contact with one another. Each section maintains its own engineering staff, a secretary, and such legal advisers and other assistants as it deems necessary.
The border and water treaties
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 2 February 1848 fixed the international boundary between El Paso–Ciudad Juárez and the Gulf of Mexico. The Gadsden Purchase Treaty of 30 December 1853 extended the southern boundary of New Mexico and Arizona southwards to enable the United States to construct a railroad to the west coast along a southern route and to resolve a question arising from the 1848 Treaty as to the location of the southern boundary of New Mexico. Temporary commissions were formed by these boundary treaties to perform the first joint mission of the governments of the United States and Mexico, which was to survey and demarcate the boundary on the ground in accordance with the treaties. Another temporary commission was created by the 1852 Boundary Convention (29 July), which surveyed and increased the number of monuments marking the land boundary westward from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
“International Boundary and Water Commission” enters the record as 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 transferred tracts of land from one bank to the other. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what International, Boundary and Water can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8348493. VIAF identifies the subject as 143035644. The Library of Congress control number is n50055183. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1884, 1889, 1944 and 1848.
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