FAA suspends most flights around El Paso to ensure safety
The Federal Aviation Administration issued an unusual security order suspending flights around El Paso until February 21, impacting all types of aviation.
EL PASO, Texas – The airspace above this border city’s international airport was temporarily closed on February 11 after the Pentagon neutralized a drone operated by a Mexican cartel that had violated U.S. airspace, according to government officials.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military had taken steps to neutralize the drone.
“The FAA and DOW acted quickly to address cartel drone incursions,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in X, citing the Trump administration’s new acronym for the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army.
“The threat has been neutralized and there is no risk to commercial travel in the region. Restrictions have been lifted and normal air services have resumed.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on February 11 that she had no information about drones near the border and told reporters that if the United States had information it could contact the Mexican government.
“Mexico’s airspace was not closed…We will find out what the reason was for the airspace to be closed,” she said.
Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-El Paso) said at a news conference that morning that she learned of the closure not from the Trump administration, but through communications within federal officials. Escobar said the Federal Aviation Administration made the decision on its own without notifying local authorities in advance.
“There is no threat. There was no threat. That’s why the FAA lifted these restrictions so quickly,” Escobar said. “Information from the government doesn’t make sense.”
Escobar said there is information he cannot share publicly at this time, but he hopes to share in the future. He also said that if there had been a drone intrusion, it would have been reported.
“This is not the way the federal government should function,” Escobar said, adding that the full impact of the shutdown remains unclear. “We have to see what this is.”
President Trump threatens land attack on Mexico
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch military strikes against cartel-linked land targets in Mexico.
“We’re going to really start working on cartels now,” he told Fox News last month.
“Cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to see what’s happening to their country.”
The U.S. military and local authorities have reported multiple encounters with drones operated by criminal organizations on the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Trump has reportedly considered the idea of direct attacks on cartels since his first term. Then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper recalled in his memoir that Trump asked him at least twice in 2020 whether the military could “fire missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs.”
Over the past year, multiple news outlets have reported that President Trump is reconsidering the idea. The New York Times reported in February 2025 that the CIA had expanded covert drone flights over Mexico to search for fentanyl labs.
The Trump administration has launched 38 known attacks on ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 130 people, and claims they were attempting to bring drugs into the United States. These airstrikes have been widely condemned as illegal and inhumane, and the government has never produced evidence that the boats were carrying drugs. The families of two men killed in the airstrike sued the Trump administration last month.
Days before Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was militarily detained on January 3, President Trump also publicly revealed a CIA-led drone attack on Venezuelan ports. The reason for the strike is not clear, but news outlets reported that U.S. authorities believe the port is being used for drug trafficking.
