Assaults on Border Patrol agents rise in Del Rio sector

Assaults on Border Patrol agents rose in the Del Rio Sector even as they fell in El Paso, a split that stands out at a time when statewide numbers were roughly flat. For Val Verde County and the surrounding border stretch, the increase underscores the strain on a sector that has served Del Rio since July 1, 1924 and now covers 47 counties across sparsely populated farm-and-ranch country.

The Del Rio Sector is not a small posting. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the area spans 55,063 square miles and 245 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. That geography matters because every assault on an on-duty agent pulls attention away from patrols, slows response times and adds another layer of risk in a region where Border Patrol already has to stretch across ranch roads, river corridors and remote crossing points.

CBP’s assault statistics count only on-duty incidents, and the agency says the figures can change after internal review and investigative findings. Even so, the direction of travel in Del Rio is notable when compared with El Paso. CBP said 104 agents were assaulted in the El Paso Sector in fiscal 2023, and 66 had been assaulted there by Aug. 12, 2024 in fiscal 2024, showing a trend that had already drawn close scrutiny before the latest numbers.

The Del Rio spike comes against a shifting enforcement backdrop. A report in early 2026 said border crossings in the sector had plunged to 32 a day, easing some of the pressure on agents and nearby communities. But lower crossing numbers have not erased the danger to officers already in the field, especially in a sector where every increase in violence can ripple through station staffing, patrol coverage and the ability to respond across a huge swath of southwest Texas.

Federal authorities have also kept assault cases moving through the courts. In 2025, a federal judge sentenced Carlos Ernesto Guerrero-Gutierrez, a Mexican national, to 46 months in prison after a November 2023 incident at an El Paso processing center in which he was convicted of three counts of assault on a federal officer. Those prosecutions show that assaults on agents are not treated as routine resistance, but as criminal cases that carry prison time and add to the federal court workload.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Feb. 3, 2026 that assaults on federal agents were among border metrics down an average of 84% year-to-date in fiscal 2026 compared with fiscal 2025. Against that broader decline, the rise in Del Rio points to a more local problem, one tied to conditions on the ground in a sector that remains one of the busiest and most exposed along the border.