Federal authorities appear to have shot down a balloon, not a drone, near the border. But concerns about cartel drones persist.
El Paso Airport resumes operations after unexpected FAA closure
El Paso Airport has resumed operations after an FAA shutdown related to reported cartel drone concerns.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. – Under a deep blue midday sky, the soundscape near the border fence included the crowing of Mexican roosters, the U.S. Union Pacific Railroad and law enforcement helicopters chopping overhead.
The din of “cartel drones” was unheard of at the time.
Trump administration officials and security experts say drones used by Mexican criminal organizations to smuggle drugs and monitor Border Patrol agents are a potential national security threat and caused the sudden eight-hour closure of nearby El Paso International Airport on February 10.
According to multiple media reports, government officials publicly blamed the no-fly order on “cartel drone infiltration,” and later competing explanations from other government officials suggested that Border Patrol agents fired new laser technology at what turned out to be party balloons. The FAA suddenly closed the airport as a precaution.
Experts say it’s true that Mexican cartels are using drones more frequently and with improved capabilities. Cartels monitor U.S. law enforcement at the border and smuggle tons of drugs. Inside Mexico, drones have begun to be outfitted with explosives to attack rival criminal organizations and security forces.
But the last thing Mexican criminal organizations want is to incur the wrath of the U.S. government by attacking Americans or U.S. law enforcement, said Juan Camilo Jaramillo, a Colombia-based investigator with Insight Crime, a cartel research group.
“That’s a line they shouldn’t cross,” he said.
“There is no evidence of weaponized drones on the U.S. side.”
President Donald Trump reclassified six Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” in a 2025 executive order that U.S. officials say gives them greater authority to target them with military force. Experts question the legitimacy of that claim.
The Department of Homeland Security has tracked tens of thousands of suspected drone sightings in recent years, but experts say none have yet posed a deadly threat inside U.S. territory.
The Pentagon recently provided anti-drone laser technology to DHS, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection deployed it to El Paso on Feb. 9, a person familiar with the matter told USA TODAY.
DHS did not respond to requests for comment about the technology’s implementation or its role in shutting down airports.
Sunland Park is part of the El Paso metropolitan area, where the U.S.-Mexico border fence cuts through miles of urban sprawl, separating the city and communities in southern New Mexico from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses thermal and other technologies at ports of entry to detect drug traffickers, including those bringing drugs into the country. But drones present new challenges.
During a July Senate hearing, Stephen Willoughby, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s program to counter unmanned aerial vehicles, said that in the last six months of 2024, more than 27,000 U.S. or Mexican drones were detected near the border. Many were flying above legal altitudes and at night, when darkness could mask illegal activities.
He warned lawmakers that rival cartels were using explosive-laden drones to attack each other and that it was “only a matter of time before Americans and law enforcement become targets in our border regions.”
Insight Criminal Investigator Jaramillo said most of the cartel’s drone capabilities are basic and business-related, involving commercially available drones used to monitor smuggling routes and competitors.
He said warring criminal factions are increasingly using drones to deliver improvised explosive devices, but their use is concentrated in lawless areas in Mexico’s interior.
According to data obtained by Insight Crime from Mexico’s Department of Defense, 40% of IEDs seized in Mexico originate near the border between Michoacán and Jalisco in the country’s south. It’s where a new generation of the Jalisco cartel has been battling disparate armed criminal groups for control of smuggling routes.
Mexican states such as Guerrero, Zacatecas and Sonora are also seeing a “rapid increase” in drone use, Insight Crime reports.
Still, “there is no evidence of a public presence of weaponized cartel drones on the U.S. side of the border,” said Austin Docter, director of strategic initiatives at the University of Nebraska’s National Center for Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education.
“They primarily target rival cartel forces or local civilians to facilitate evacuation or attack local security forces,” he said. “The question is: Are we at increased risk of that change?”
“The threat has been neutralized”
On the morning of the El Paso airport closure, at 7:37 a.m. local time on February 11, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on social media that the FAA and Department of Defense “acted quickly to address cartel drone intrusion.”
“The threat has been neutralized,” he said in a post on X, adding that “there is no risk to business travel.”
Other government officials disputed that version of events as the day progressed. Shortly after Duffy’s post, a reporter asked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo what her government knew about the so-called invasion.
She had no information, she said. “If the FAA or any other department of the U.S. government has any information, they can ask the Mexican government (about it),” she added. “We will maintain what we have always maintained: permanent communication.”
Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and co-founder of consulting firm Dinamica Americas, said U.S.-Mexico cooperation on security issues improved dramatically under Sheinbaum Pardo. This includes partnerships on extradition, information sharing and joint monitoring, she said.
Over the past year, Sheinbaum Pardo has faced dangerous political obstacles in its relations with its powerful northern neighbor. But every time Trump posts on social media angry about drug trafficking or drone incursions, Sheinbaum Pardo has deftly reminded Trump of their partnership, Jacobson said.
The two leaders met in January. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Mexican counterpart followed up a few days later, and a “ministerial security” meeting was planned for February.
“Maybe it’s ironic or not, but it’s always seemed to me that the best collaborations happen behind the scenes without much fuss,” Jacobson said. “It comes from the low-key, behind-the-scenes information sharing that happens behind the scenes.”
Lauren Villagran covers immigration and the border for USA TODAY. Contact him at lvillagran@usatoday.com.
Cybele Mays-Ostermann will be in charge of national security.
