Why the El Paso Airport Closed Temporarily

The El Paso airport was closed temporarily and reopened on Wednesday morning due to a drone incursion from Mexican cartels.

“Mexican cartel drones breached U.S. airspace,” a Trump administration official told The Daily Signal.

“The Department of War took action to disable the drones. The [Federal Aviation Administration] and [Department of War] have determined there is no threat to commercial travel.”

Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed in a post on X that the “threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”

Early Wednesday morning, the El Paso International Airport in Texas announced that all flights would be grounded for 10 days due to an FAA flight restriction closing the airspace around the El Paso airport.

Hours later, the airport announced that the travel restrictions had been lifted.

“El Paso International Airport operations have reopened following the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to lift the temporary closure of the airspace over El Paso,” the airport wrote on its Facebook page.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon and the FAA were determining the risk of military countermeasures to commercial aircraft, and that prompted the decision to shut down the airport.

Mexico’s cartels began using drones in recent years to monitor Border Patrol activity, according to Customs and Border Protection.

“We’re very concerned about, uh, the drone threat,” Interim Border Patrol Chief for the El Paso Sector Walter Slosar told The Daily Signal during an interview at the border in August.

The cartels have also reportedly used drones to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

Last week, officials from the border city of Chihuahua, Mexico, and the state of New Mexico met to discuss concerns over the cartels’ increased use of drones, according to Border Report.

The New Mexico state Legislature is currently considering a bill to place restrictions on drones.

“We want people to be able to use drones,” New Mexico Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman says.

“However, the idea that drones can be used to circle law enforcement to do things that are known to be criminal activity, the idea that you are going to use a drone, fly it over the border from Mexico, drop a package or guide traffickers so they not be detected, that’s a real problem.”