In this week’s ‘Immigration Crisis’ – Examining the FAA’s brief shutdown of El Paso airspace allegedly due to cartel drones, a viral San Antonio ICE home entry video, and what state and federal records reveal. The episode also features Rice University students who created an ICE heat map tracking enforcement nationwide, raising new questions about transparency and accountability.
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El Paso Airspace Shutdown
The Incident: On Wednesday, February 11, 2026, the FAA abruptly shut down all airspace over El Paso, grounding flights in and out of the international airport for several hours.
Official Reason: The Trump administration cited “special security reasons” involving alleged cartel drone activity crossing into U.S. airspace.
The “Real” Reason: Multiple sources suggest the shutdown was actually triggered by a Pentagon plan to test a high-energy counter-drone laser. The test allegedly lacked proper coordination with the FAA, leading to the immediate grounding of civilian and emergency flights to avoid potential risks.
Viral ICE Video in San Antonio
The Conflict: A viral video showed ICE agents (Enforcement and Removal Operations) entering a San Antonio home without producing a warrant.
DHS Claims: Authorities stated they were pursuing Gonzalo Mahia Ortega, an undocumented fugitive with three prior arrests for domestic assault who had allegedly fled a traffic stop.
Fact-Check: Investigative reporters found no record of criminal charges or indictments for Ortega in local or national databases [04:42]. While there were police reports of a tracking device and a verbal dispute in 2025, no arrests were ever made in those instances.
Outcome: Ortega reportedly escaped through a window while agents were inside the home and remains at large.
Rice University “ICE Heat Map”
The Project: Jack Vu, a student at Rice University, developed a website called ICEMAP that uses “geotags” to track ICE activity across the U.S.
How it Works: The site uses automated scrapers to gather local and national news reports about ICE raids, protests, and arrests, clustering them into a heat map for users to see activity near them.
Motivation: Vu started the project after an ICE raid at a Houston apartment complex caused students to stop attending his volunteer classes out of fear.
Traffic: The site reportedly receives several hundred thousand visitors a day, providing transparency that Vu argues is often downplayed or hidden by official sources.