{"id":160849,"date":"2026-02-12T02:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/160849\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T02:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:07:23","slug":"the-trump-administration-blamed-cartel-drones-for-closing-el-pasos-airspace-the-real-story-appears-much-dumber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/160849\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Administration Blamed Cartel Drones For Closing El Paso’s Airspace. The Real Story Appears Much Dumber."},"content":{"rendered":"

The unexpected shutdown of the entire airspace over El Paso, Texas, was reportedly related to federal officials disagreeing about the safety of anti-drone tests near the El Paso International Airport after the U.S. military shot down a party balloon earlier this week that it mistook for a drone.<\/p>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration abruptly ordered the airspace\u2019s closure Tuesday night after the Defense Department started testing new counter-drone technology involving a high-energy laser near the Fort Bliss Army base, ahead of planned meetings with the FAA to discuss its safety, CBS News <\/a>and The New York Times<\/a> reported, citing multiple sources.<\/p>\n

FAA officials had warned the Pentagon that it could close the airspace if it was not given proper time to carry out a safety review. After the testing commenced anyway, resulting in the balloon\u2019s destruction, the FAA ordered the airspace\u2019s closure without alerting the White House, Pentagon or Homeland Security officials, sources told The Times.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe FAA had initially said that the airspace in and around the El Paso International Airport would be closed for 10 days for “special security reasons.”<\/p>\n

Kirby Lee via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A U.S. official also confirmed the balloon\u2019s laser destruction to Fox News.<\/a><\/p>\n

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment in an email to HuffPost. Representatives with the Transportation Department and Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to similar requests for comment.<\/p>\n

After several hours of mass anger and confusion, the airspace was reopened Wednesday morning with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy publicly blaming the shutdown, which the FAA initially said would last 10 days, on an invasion or attack by cartel drones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region,\u201d he said in a social media post late Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), whose district borders El Paso, was among those immediately expressing skepticism about the closure, which he said diverted medical evacuation flights and canceled roughly half of the area\u2019s commercial aircraft flights.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe U.S. military was testing new anti-drone technology near Fort Bliss, Texas, just before the airspace was closed, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statements this Administration has put out about the situation are misleading at best and a coverup for their incompetence at worst,\u201d he said in a statement shared with HuffPost.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear, he said, that the FAA acted \u201cin error\u201d when it abruptly closed the airspace after tracking the Pentagon\u2019s counterdrone tests over multiple days.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be clear \u2014 the Administration has provided no proof of a drone incursion that would warrant this large scale, 10-day response. Our nation can prepare for these threats without causing chaos and inducing unwarranted fear,\u201d he said. \u201cThe American people deserve better than the chaos and lack of transparency we keep seeing from this Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) also said that she\u2019s seeking answers while stressing that no advance notice about the closure was provided to her office, the city of El Paso, \u201cor anyone involved in airport operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas,\u201d she said in a social media post. <\/a>\u201cI will continue to make information public as I learn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The unexpected shutdown of the entire airspace over El Paso, Texas, was reportedly related to federal officials disagreeing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4018,138,140,139,504,1153],"class_list":["post-160849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-drones","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}