{"id":164309,"date":"2026-02-14T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/164309\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T06:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T06:00:48","slug":"el-paso-airspace-closure-was-reportedly-triggered-by-the-cbps-use-of-an-anti-drone-laser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/164309\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso airspace closure was reportedly triggered by the CBP\u2019s use of an anti-drone laser"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hours-long closure of El Paso airspace stemmed from the use of an anti-drone laser deployed by Customs and Border Protection, according to reports from The New York Times<\/a> and the Associated Press<\/a>. Sources tell The Times that CBP officials didn\u2019t give the Federal Aviation Administration \u201cenough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft,\u201d leading to the abrupt shutdown.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the FAA closed the airspace<\/a> around El Paso International Airport, citing \u201cspecial security reasons.\u201d The move impacted commercial flights and emergency medical transportation. Though the agency initially said the closure would last 10 days, it reopened the airspace just hours later. At the time, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X<\/a> that the \u201cFAA and DOW [Department of War] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,\u201d adding that the \u201cthreat has been neutralized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times reports that CBP officials \u201cthought they were firing on a cartel drone,\u201d but it was actually a party balloon. Sources tell CBS News<\/a> that one balloon was shot down. The Pentagon reportedly provided the CBP with the anti-laser technology. The CBP deployed the laser in response to the drones that Trump administration officials claim Mexican cartels are using to smuggle drugs and surveil border patrol agents<\/a>, as noted by The New York Times. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pushed back on these claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reuters reports<\/a> that the anti-drone technology used was AeroVironment\u2019s LOCUST, a 20-kilowatt direct-energy weapon designed to take down drones. The CBP worked with the Pentagon to deploy the laser near Fort Bliss, a US Army base in El Paso, \u201cwithout coordinating with the FAA,\u201d according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers are pressing Trump administration officials for answers about the airspace closure, with Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) saying federal agencies<\/a> must provide a \u201cfull accounting of what occurred in US airspace, whether proper safety protocols were followed, and why public communications appear to have been inconsistent.\u201d Texas Representative Veronica Escobar says the airspace closure was \u201cthe result of incompetence at the highest levels of the administration,\u201d and that she\u2019s working to get \u201call the answers we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hours-long closure of El Paso airspace stemmed from the use of an anti-drone laser deployed by Customs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4018,138,140,139,223,8002,287,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-164309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-drones","9":"tag-el-paso","10":"tag-el-paso-headlines","11":"tag-el-paso-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-policy","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164309","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=164309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}