![\"Satellite](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-12-171441.png\")
The U.S. declared a 10-day closure of the area around the El Paso airport in response to the incident \u2014 but the closure was quickly lifted the same day. (Google Earth)<\/p>\n
Duffy said on social media<\/a> on Wednesday that the cartel drone threat had been \u201cneutralized,\u201d allowing the airspace over El Paso to reopen. His assertion was reposted by the FAA on X.<\/p>\n Citing \u201cmultiple people briefed on the situation,\u201d the NYT reported<\/a> that \u201cthe abrupt closure of El Paso\u2019s airspace late Tuesday was precipitated when Customs and Border Protection [CBP] officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 The episode led the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly declare that the nearby airspace would be shut down for 10 days, an extraordinary pause that was quickly lifted Wednesday morning at the direction of the White House,\u201d the Times wrote.<\/p>\n AP, citing two unnamed \u201cpeople familiar with the situation,\u201d reported<\/a> that the Pentagon allowed CBP to \u201cuse an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n AP cited one of its sources as saying that the laser was \u201cdeployed near Fort Bliss [U.S. Army post] without coordinating with the FAA, which decided then to close the airspace to ensure commercial air safety.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOthers familiar with the matter said the technology was used despite a meeting scheduled for later this month between the Pentagon and the FAA to discuss the issue,\u201d AP said.<\/p>\n The NYT wrote that Duffy\u2019s assertion was \u201cundercut by multiple people familiar with the situation, who said that the FAA\u2019s extreme move\u201d to close the airspace above El Paso \u201ccame after immigration officials earlier this week used an anti-drone laser shared by the Pentagon without coordination with the FAA.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 CBP officials thought they were firing on a cartel drone, the people said, but it turned out to be a party balloon,\u201d the Times reported.<\/p>\n \u201cDefense Department officials were present during the incident, one person said. \u2026 The military has been developing high-energy laser technology to intercept and destroy drones, which the Trump administration has said<\/a> are being used by Mexican cartels to\u00a0track Border Patrol agents and smuggle drugs into the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times also wrote that \u201cit was not clear\u201d the CBP\u2019s deployment of an anti-drone laser \u201calone prompted the FAA\u2019s decision to close the airspace over El Paso.\u201d<\/p>\n Did a Mexican cartel just try to attack El Paso?<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFAA officials did not respond to questions about the claims by Mr. Duffy and other administration officials that a subsequent drone incursion had necessitated the closure of the airspace starting at 11:30 p.m. local time\u201d on Tuesday, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 But according to the people briefed on the matter, at the time FAA officials closed the airspace, the agency had not yet completed a safety assessment of the risks the new [anti-drone laser] technology could pose to other aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheinbaum: US government has to explain what happened<\/p>\n At her Thursday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum said there was no \u201cofficial information\u201d about the cause of the closure of airspace above El Paso, although she acknowledged there was a social media post from Duffy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was nothing from Mexico,\u201d she said, asserting that there was no evidence of drones having entered the U.S. from the north of the country.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can be absolutely certain of that,\u201d added Sheinbaum, who said Wednesday<\/a> that there was \u201cno information about the use of drones at the border.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn any case, they have to provide an official explanation,\u201d she said Thursday in reference to the U.S. government.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 They don\u2019t even mention \u2018Mexico.\u2019 \u2026 They talk about cartels, but they never mention Mexico, [at least in] the case of the transportation secretary,\u201d Sheinbaum said.<\/p>\n U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island who serves on the Senate\u2019s Armed Services Committee, also said that the U.S. government needs to explain itself.<\/p>\n \u201cA ten-day shutdown of a major U.S. air corridor is an extraordinary step that demands a clear and consistent explanation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conflicting accounts coming from different parts of the federal government only deepen public concern and raise serious questions about coordination and decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n US Senator: Airspace closure due to \u2018lack of coordination\u2019<\/p>\n U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois and a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, said that<\/a> the closure of the airspace over El Paso was the result of a \u201clack of coordination that\u2019s endemic in this Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have all sorts of questions,\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n Scott Brown, a former special agent in charge at Homeland Security Investigations who has experience in counter-drone operations at the U.S.-Mexico border, told Reuters that he thought the Trump administration could be using the airspace closure as the pretext for a strike on Mexican cartels, which the U.S. president has threatened to carry out in Mexican territory<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I heard about the airport closure, my concern was, is this a pretext for a counter-strike by the U.S.?\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n Republican lawmaker: Drone incursions part of \u2018everyday life\u2019 at US-Mexico border\u00a0<\/p>\n Last July, Steven Willoughby, director of the counter-drone program at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said that<\/a> \u201cnearly every day, transnational criminal organizations use drones to convey illicit narcotics and contraband across U.S. borders and to conduct hostile surveillance of law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, AP reported that incursions into U.S. airspace by Mexican cartel drones \u201care not uncommon along the southern border,\u201d while Republican Representative Tony Gonzales said that \u201cfor any of us who live and work along the border, daily drone incursions by criminal organizations is everyday life for us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a Wednesday for us,\u201d said Gonzales, whose congressional district in Texas<\/a> abuts the border with Mexico.<\/p>\n Reuters reported that \u201cthe Pentagon has said there are more than 1,000 drone incursions along the U.S.-Mexico border each month.\u201d<\/p>\n In such a context, the Trump administration\u2019s assertion than an incursion by a Mexican cartel drone (or drones) precipitated the closure of airspace above El Paso appears fanciful.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been drone incursions from Mexico going back to as long as drones existed,\u201d said Representative Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso in the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not unusual, and there was nothing extraordinary about any drone incursion into the U.S. that I\u2019m aware of. \u2026 There\u2019s no threat. There was not a threat, which is why the FAA lifted this restriction so quickly. The information coming from the [Trump] administration does not add up,\u201d she said.<\/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.<\/p>\n Security expert: Drone attack \u2018narrative\u2019 serves Trump\u2019s interests\u00a0<\/p>\n Willoughby, the DHS official, asserted last July that it was \u201conly a matter of time\u201d before Mexican criminal organizations carried out drone attacks against U.S. citizens and law enforcement authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Ukraine and Russia, the extensive use of drones in the ongoing war has further demonstrated their lethality and versatility. \u2026 As my colleagues here can attest to, the threat of weaponized UAS [unmanned aircraft system] attacks is also a concern right here in the United States,\u201d Willoughby said at a July 22 appearance before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carlos P\u00e9rez Ricart<\/a>, a security expert and academic at the Center for Research in Teaching and Economics in Mexico City, took issue with the assertion that cartels would use drones to launch attacks in the U.S. at some point.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no evidence that the cartels would attack the U.S. with drones, it doesn\u2019t make sense for them,\u201d he told Reuters. \u201cBut such a narrative does serve Trump\u2019s interests in creating a justification for military action.\u201d<\/p>\n With reports from The New York Times<\/a>, AP<\/a> and Reuters<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cause of the closure of airspace over El Paso, Texas, from late Tuesday to early Wednesday was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[66505,66506,138,18617,140,139,2399,66507],"class_list":{"0":"post-162452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-anti-drone-laser","9":"tag-cartel-drones-mexico","10":"tag-el-paso","11":"tag-el-paso-airport","12":"tag-el-paso-headlines","13":"tag-el-paso-news","14":"tag-faa","15":"tag-sticky"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162452","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=162452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sheinbaum.jpg\")
In response to queries about the Wednesday airspace shutdown, President Sheinbaum said any explanation must come from the U.S. government. (Andrea Murcia\/Cuartoscuro.com)<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/diana-macesanu-fvPfMJL2wKw-unsplash.jpg\")
There are more than 1,000 drone incursions from Mexico into the U.S. every month, some of which are operated by criminal organizations. (Diana M\u0103ce\u015fanu)<\/p>\n