The Del Rio Sector is a U.S. Border Patrol sector that is responsible for law enforcement along about 245 miles of the Rio Grande River and Lake Amistad on the U.S.–Mexico border; it covers roughly 55,063 square miles of Texas and is managed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s U.S. Border Patrol (USBP).
In CBP/USBP reporting, “encounters” is an umbrella term that includes USBP Title 8 apprehensions (between ports of entry), Office of Field Operations (OFO) inadmissibles at ports of entry, and (where applicable) Title 42 expulsions — i.e., any recorded encounter of a removable non‑citizen recorded in CBP systems.
“Gotaways” (often reported by USBP) are individuals believed to have unlawfully entered between ports of entry who were directly or indirectly observed (e.g., seen by an agent, camera, sensor, or tracks) but were not apprehended or turned back; sectors compile known “gotaway” counts from agent reports and sensor/camera logs and reconcile them in USBP internal datasets. CBP does not publish a single definitive public gotaways time series on the main stats dashboards, but USBP sector-level “gotaways” files have been released via CBP data products/FOIA in the past.
Operation River Wall is a Rio Grande–focused enforcement initiative announced in October 2025 aimed at increasing patrol, riverine operations, and other measures to disrupt unlawful crossings along the Rio Grande; public statements describe it as expanding river/near‑river law enforcement operations, surveillance, and interagency activity to secure that riverine border corridor. (Authorizing authorities and operational details are held by the implementing agencies.)
The “Smart Wall” described in the DHS release is a hybrid border infrastructure package combining physical barriers, roads, cameras and sensors, and detection technology; the Trump administration announced a $4.5 billion contract package in October 2025 to build roughly 230 miles of that system. Contract award notices identify multiple contractor teams for Smart Wall buildout but specific prime awardees for the October 2025 package are listed in federal procurement/agency announcements (see source links for the October 2025 announcement and related CBP/DHS materials).
The FYTD26 vs FYTD25 Del Rio Sector numbers in the DHS release are presented by DHS/DHS components (the release itself). Underlying encounter/apprehension/gotaway statistics originate in CBP/USBP operational databases; CBP publishes much of its encounter data and related datasets on the CBP Public Data Portal and Nationwide Encounters dashboards (the same data sources CBP cites), though some internal reconciliation files (e.g., provisional sector gotaways spreadsheets) may be administrative and not directly mirrored on public dashboards.
Oversight includes DHS internal oversight components and external independent reviewers: CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility and internal data systems, DHS Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) audits/reports, DHS data portals and legislative briefings to Congress; CBP also publishes underlying encounter datasets on its Public Data Portal for outside analysis. Independent academic and media analyses also examine CBP data, and Congress can and does request IG reviews.
State military and law‑enforcement forces (e.g., Texas National Guard) coordinate with USBP under memoranda of understanding and federal law: the National Guard can provide support (logistics, surveillance, temporary fencing, road/aviation assets, intelligence sharing, and non‑arrest support) but federal agents (USBP/CBP) retain primary authority for immigration enforcement and arrests; operations are governed by interagency agreements, the Posse Comitatus boundary (which limits direct DoD law‑enforcement activity), and memoranda of agreement between state and federal partners.