U.S. federal officials abruptly closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas, for several hours early Wednesday due to what the Trump administration said was Mexican cartel drone activity, temporarily grounding flights and angering local officials who said they were given no advanced warning.
The Federal Aviation Administration originally announced a 10-day closure of the airspace, confusing travellers at the airport in El Paso, a border city with a population of nearly 700,000 people. The order was lifted a few hours later. No Mexican airspace was closed.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
Duffy said normal flights were resuming Wednesday morning. He did not say how many drones were involved or what specifically was done to disable them.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, said neither her office, the city of El Paso nor airport operations received advance notice. She said she believed the shutdown was not based on Mexican cartel drones in U.S. airspace, saying that “is not what we in Congress have been told.”
Pentagon officials declined to comment on Escobar’s remarks and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office referred questions to the FAA.
“I 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,” Escobar said during a news conference. The shutdown had been expected to create significant disruptions given the duration and the size of the metropolitan area around El Paso.
“The information coming from the federal government does not add up,” Escobar said.
The airport posted later Wednesday morning that its operations had resumed and encouraged travellers to contact their airlines for the most up-to-date flight information.
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