social media<\/a> at 9:37 US Eastern time (14:37 GMT).<\/p>\n\u201cThe threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Mexican government has not confirmed the drone incursion.<\/p>\n
At her morning news conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters, \u201cThere is no information about drone use on the border,\u201d but she added that the security cabinet would investigate the incident.<\/p>\n
Anonymous US officials have told media outlets like CNN and CBS News that the sudden airspace closure may have been a false alarm, caused by the US military\u2019s tests of its laser-based counter-drone system near El Paso.<\/p>\n
CBS and Fox News also reported that, earlier this week, a party balloon was misidentified as a drone, prompting it to be shot down, according to official sources.<\/p>\n
The El Paso airspace closure began abruptly late on Tuesday night and lasted until early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Still, the Trump administration framed the airspace closure as evidence of the threat from Mexican cartels.<\/p>\n
Speaking to lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi cited the alleged drone incident as she spoke of \u201cstriking crucial blows against terrorist organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019ve seen the news this morning,\u201d Bondi told Congress members. \u201cThe news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. That\u2019s what we all should care about right now: protecting America.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has frequently referred to criminal groups operating in Mexico as a threat to US national security.<\/p>\n
Since taking office on January 20, 2025, Trump has started designating cartels across Latin America as \u201cforeign terrorist organisations\u201d, spurring fears that the US could launch aggressive, cross-border military actions.<\/p>\n
Trump himself has\u00a0threatened to strike drug trafficking groups in Mexican territory, despite criticism that such an attack would constitute a violation of Mexican sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Already, Trump has authorised military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, on the pretext of disrupting international drug trafficking. He has alluded to land-based targets as an extension of that military campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to start now hitting land. With regard to the cartels, the cartels are running Mexico. It\u2019s very sad to watch,\u201d Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview published on January 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see what\u2019s happened to that country. But the cartels are running it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some elected officials, however, have expressed scepticism about the Trump administration\u2019s claims about a drone incursion on Wednesday. Democratic Congress member Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, was among those asking for more information.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,\u201d Escobar said during a news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information coming from the federal government does not add up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a04 mins info United States aviation authorities have announced that the airspace over El Paso,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[294,145,406,2277,1468,223,287,27,29,28,13887,464,7454],"class_list":{"0":"post-161350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-latin-america","12":"tag-mexico","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-headlines","17":"tag-texas-news","18":"tag-transport","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161350","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=161350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}