El Paso Airspace Reopens After Drone Scare Raises Questions

For a few tense hours, one of Texas’s busiest border cities found itself at the center of a national security narrative. By mid-morning Wednesday, though, the Federal Aviation Administration had reversed course.

“The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal,” the agency said in a social media post.

That marked a sharp pivot from an earlier announcement that had abruptly halted air traffic over El Paso for what was initially described as a 10-day period due to an alleged drone incursion linked to a Mexican cartel. Such a prolonged closure would have been unprecedented.

The Trump administration framed the episode as a swift and decisive response to a cross-border threat. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on social media that “The FAA and [the Department of Defense] 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 added.

El Paso sits directly across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, making it a focal point in broader debates about border security. Since returning to office on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump has made border enforcement a defining priority, including designating several Latin American cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations”.

But even as US officials suggested the drone had been destroyed, Mexico’s government said it had no confirmation of such an incursion. President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters at her morning briefing, “There is no information about drone use on the border,” though she said her security cabinet would look into the matter.

Anonymous US officials later told outlets including CNN and CBS News that the airspace shutdown may have stemmed from a false alarm — possibly related to US military testing of a laser-based counter-drone system near El Paso. Other reports indicated that, earlier in the week, a party balloon had been mistaken for a drone and shot down.

The closure began late Tuesday night and lasted into early Wednesday morning, disrupting flights in and out of one of Texas’s largest cities.

Despite lingering uncertainty about what triggered the alarm, senior administration officials used the moment to underscore what they describe as escalating cartel threats. Speaking before the House of Representatives, Attorney General Pam Bondi pointed to the alleged drone incident while describing efforts to counter organised crime.

“I think you’ve seen the news this morning,” Bondi told Congress members. “The news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. That’s what we all should care about right now: protecting America.”

Trump has repeatedly argued that cartels pose a national security risk and has floated the possibility of expanded military action, including on Mexican soil. In a January 9 interview with Fox News, he said, “We are going to start now hitting land. With regard to the cartels, the cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”

“You see what’s happened to that country. But the cartels are running it.”

Critics, however, are urging caution. Some lawmakers, including Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar of El Paso, have called for more clarity about what actually happened before drawing conclusions.