{"id":161406,"date":"2026-02-12T10:29:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161406\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T10:29:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:29:46","slug":"mexican-cartel-drones-breach-us-airspace-prompt-el-paso-airport-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161406\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican cartel drones breach US airspace, prompt El Paso airport closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration says \u201cMexican cartel drones\u201d breached U.S. airspace on Wednesday, causing a temporary closure of flights to and from El Paso International Airport in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of War took action to disable the drones,\u201d an administration official told Military Times. The Federal Aviation Administration and Pentagon \u201chave determined there is no threat to commercial travel,\u201d the official added. <\/p>\n

The El Paso International Airport is located less than 10 miles from Biggs Army Airfield on Fort Bliss. <\/p>\n

Leadership at the installation remained in the dark about the decision to shut down the air space around the base and were not informed when the restrictions were lifted, according to a defense official. <\/p>\n

\u201cLeadership found out in real time,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in a post on X<\/a>, said the Department of Defense \u201cacted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,\u201d though he did not specify how many unmanned systems were involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region,\u201d he wrote, adding, \u201cNormal flights are resuming.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the FAA announced that it would ground flights \u2014 including commercial, cargo and general aviation \u2014 in and out of the airport until Feb. 21 due to \u201cspecial security reasons.\u201d That decision was lifted hours later. <\/p>\n

Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents the El Paso area, called the move \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe highly consequential decision by the FAA to shut down the El Paso Airport for 10 days is unprecedented and resulted in significant concern in the community,\u201d Escobar said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThere was no advance notice provided to my office, the City of El Paso, or anyone involved in airport operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The El Paso International Airport did not immediately respond to requests for comment. <\/p>\n

Tanya Noury is a reporter for Military Times and Defense News, with coverage focusing on the White House and Pentagon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration says \u201cMexican cartel drones\u201d breached U.S. airspace on Wednesday, causing a temporary closure of flights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[13607,13608,13609,13605,13610,29871,66154,138,140,139,5032,66155,13611,16516],"class_list":{"0":"post-161406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-circulated-air-force-times","9":"tag-circulated-army-times","10":"tag-circulated-marine-corps-times","11":"tag-circulated-military-times","12":"tag-circulated-navy-times","13":"tag-defense-department","14":"tag-dod","15":"tag-el-paso","16":"tag-el-paso-headlines","17":"tag-el-paso-news","18":"tag-fort-bliss","19":"tag-military-news","20":"tag-military-times","21":"tag-pentagon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161406","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=161406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}