The secretary of transportation said the military had neutralized a drug cartel drone. Two officials said testing of counter-drone technology prompted the closure. The F.A.A. initially said it would last 10 days.
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted an order to ground all flights at El Paso International Airport on Wednesday. The order was initially issued on Tuesday night. The Trump administration claimed a drone incursion caused the El Paso airspace closure. But people briefed on the situation said it was because of the military’s use of anti-drone technology.CreditCredit…Paul Ratje for The New York Times
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Edgar SandovalReyes Mata IIIKaroun Demirjian and Luke Broadwater
Reyes Mata III reported from El Paso International Airport.
Here’s the latest.
Officials on Wednesday offered conflicting explanations for a temporary closure of airspace over El Paso, after the Federal Aviation Administration rescinded an order issued hours earlier to ground flights for 10 days.
Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, and officials from the White House and the Pentagon said Mexican cartel drones breached U.S. airspace, prompting the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso. But two people briefed by Trump administration officials said the shutdown was prompted by the Defense Department’s use of new counter-drone technology and concerns about the risks it could pose to other aircraft in the area.
Initially, the agency cited “special security reasons” late Tuesday night, halting all flights to and from El Paso International Airport for 10 days and isolating a major American metropolitan area from air travel. The closure, which appeared to surprise state and local officials, went into effect at 11:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday and was lifted a little before 7 a.m. on Wednesday.
“There is no threat to commercial aviation,” the agency said on social media. “All flights will resume as normal.”
Representative Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, pushed back on the drone explanation given by Trump administration officials, saying at a news conference it was “not the information that we in Congress have been told.”
She added: “There was not a threat, which is why the F.A.A. lifted this restriction so quickly. The information coming from the administration does not add up.”
Renard Johnson, the mayor of El Paso, said at a news conference that many local officials remained unclear why the agency took such a drastic action, and that the “failure to communicate is unacceptable.” He said it resulted in a series of chaotic events around El Paso, including medical evacuation flights forced to divert to Las Cruces, N.M., a city about 45 miles to the northwest.
“This unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community,” Mr. Johnson said. “I want to be very, very clear that this should’ve never happened. You cannot restrict air space over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership.”
Here’s what else to know:
- Cartel drones: Drones have become a prominent tool and weapon used by Mexican cartels across Mexico in recent years, according to cartel operatives, security analysts and some government officials on both sides of the border. While Trump administration officials have warned for months about cartels using them near the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican officials have publicly been more skeptical, downplaying the threat drones pose at the border. Read more ›
- Counter-drone program: In July, Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Homeland Security Department, testified before Congress and asked lawmakers to continue the program. He said that 27,000 drones had flown within about 1,650 feet of the border over six months in 2024, piloted by organizations hostile to law enforcement. He did not go into detail on the nature of the anti-drone technology the department was testing.
- Airport: The airport in El Paso, the 23rd-most populous city in the nation according to the 2020 census, serves a vast swath of West Texas and eastern New Mexico and offers direct flights to hubs across the southwestern United States, as well as to cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle. The nearest major U.S. airport is in Albuquerque, about 270 miles away.
- Disrupted travel: Alex Torres, 42, was among the travelers who arrived at the airport unaware that flights had been grounded. Ms. Torres, who was expecting to fly to New York for business, said she spoke with an American Airlines representative on the phone who had yet to hear the news. “They didn’t know anything about the airport being closed,” she said.
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Feb. 11, 2026, 1:29 p.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Karoun DemirjianEric SchmittKate Kelly and Hamed Aleaziz
Reporting from Washington
Questions surround Trump administration’s explanation for airspace closure.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision Tuesday night to close El Paso’s airspace up to 18,000 feet blindsided officials in El Paso.Credit…Paul Ratje for The New York Times
The abrupt closure of El Paso’s airspace late Tuesday was precipitated when Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft, according to multiple people briefed on the situation.
The episode led the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly declare that the nearby airspace would be shut down for 10 days, an extraordinary pause that was quickly lifted Wednesday morning at the direction of the White House.
Top administration officials quickly claimed that the closure was in response to a sudden incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels that required a military response, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declaring in a social media post that “the threat has been neutralized.”
But that assertion was undercut by multiple people familiar with the situation, who said that the F.A.A.’s extreme move came after immigration officials earlier this week used an anti-drone laser shared by the Pentagon without coordination with the F.A.A. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
C.B.P. officials thought they were firing on a cartel drone, the people said, but it turned out to be a party balloon. Defense Department officials were present during the incident, one person said.
The Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The F.A.A. declined to comment.
The military has been developing high-energy laser technology to intercept and destroy drones, which the Trump administration has said are being used by Mexican cartels to track Border Patrol agents and smuggle drugs into the United States.
The airspace closure provoked a significant backlash from local officials and sharp questions by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including some Republicans, who expressed skepticism about the administration’s version of the events.
“At this point, the details of what exactly occurred over El Paso are unclear,” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees the aviation agency, told reporters Wednesday after attending a closed-door briefing with Bryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator.
Mr. Cruz and Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, both said they wanted a classified briefing on the incident from the F.A.A. and the Defense Department.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, also rejected the administration’s explanations.
“A ten-day shutdown of a major U.S. air corridor is an extraordinary step that demands a clear and consistent explanation,” Mr. Reed said in a statement. “The conflicting accounts coming from different parts of the federal government only deepen public concern and raise serious questions about coordination and decision-making.”
According to four people briefed on the situation, Pentagon and F.A.A. officials were set to meet on Feb. 20 to discuss the safety implications of deploying the military’s new anti-drone technology, which was being tested. But the F.A.A.’s urgency intensified after C.B.P. officials deployed the technology.
It was not clear if that incident alone prompted the F.A.A.’s decision to close the airspace over El Paso. F.A.A. officials did not respond to questions about the claims by Mr. Duffy and other administration officials that a subsequent drone incursion had necessitated the closure of the airspace starting at 11:30 p.m. local time. A Transportation Department spokesman did not respond to inquiries about whether a party balloon had been fired upon this week.
But according to the people briefed on the matter, at the time F.A.A. officials closed the airspace, the agency had not yet completed a safety assessment of the risks the new technology could pose to other aircraft. Two of the people added that F.A.A. officials had warned the Pentagon that if they were not given sufficient time and information to conduct their review, they would have no choice but to shut down the nearby airspace.
The F.A.A.’s initial closure announcement late Tuesday, which cited “special security reasons,” barred all aircraft from flying in the area around El Paso below 18,000 for 10 days — until one day after the Feb. 20 meeting had been scheduled to take place.
The move left El Paso officials blindsided.
“I want to be very, very clear that this should’ve never happened,” Mayor Renard Johnson of El Paso said in a news conference Wednesday morning. “You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership.”
“That failure to communicate is unacceptable,” he added.
Federal agencies largely stayed mum on the controversy, even in its aftermath. Mr. Bedford, the agency’s administrator, declined to answer reporters’ questions following a closed-door briefing with senators at the Capitol Wednesday evening. Earlier Wednesday, a Pentagon spokesman repeated the military’s assertion that it had responded to a drone incursion.
A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address the dispute, challenged the claim of a failure of communication, saying that the Pentagon and the Department of Transportation had been coordinating with the aviation agency for months and that it had been assured that there was no threat to commercial air travel.
The Trump administration has been vocal about its plans to fight Mexican drug cartels and neutralize the drones some are using as part of their operations, even as Mexico’s leaders reject claims that they have been involved in cross-border incursions.
“There is no information about the use of drones at the border,” President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said in a morning news conference, shortly after news broke about the temporary closure of the El Paso airspace.
In July, Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Homeland Security Department, testified before Congress that 27,000 drones had flown within 500 meters of the border over six months in 2024, piloted by organizations hostile to law enforcement.
Those drones can cause major disruptions to American infrastructure, Mr. Willoughby said, adding that his program works with the F.A.A. “to properly coordinate the use of each piece of equipment at specific locations and times to ensure that impacts to the national airspace system are minimized.”
The day after Mr. Willoughby’s testimony, Ms. Sheinbaum disputed his assertion, saying in a news conference that Mexican officials had observed the cartels using drones against one another inside Mexican territory, but not at the border. Speaking at the same news conference in July, Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, Mexico’s navy secretary, insisted that the cartels’ drones “have not been detected at the border.”
In the United States, where many officials accept cartel drone incursions as established fact, some wondered why this particular incident would have prompted such an uncommonly sweeping response from the F.A.A.
“There have been drone incursions from Mexico going back to as long as drones existed,” Representative Veronica Escobar, the Texas Democrat representing El Paso in Congress, said at a news conference. “This is not unusual, and there was nothing extraordinary about any drone incursion into the U.S. that I’m aware of.”
In general, the F.A.A. goes to great lengths to avoid closing airports to traffic, because unplanned closures, even when they happen for just a few hours, can wreak havoc on air travel. Even in a high-risk security situation, F.A.A. airspace closures are usually limited.
On Jan. 3, for example, when the U.S. military captured Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, and his wife, the F.A.A. issued emergency orders barring U.S. flights from operating in the region around Venezuela and closing U.S.-controlled airspace in other parts of the Caribbean for only 24 hours.
Luke Broadwater, Aishvarya Kavi, Edgar Sandoval, Jack Nicas, Minho Kim and J. David Goodman contributed reporting.
Feb. 11, 2026, 12:04 p.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Jack Nicas and Paulina Villegas
Jack Nicas reported from Mexico City, and Paulina Villegas from New York
U.S. officials have warned about cartel drones at the border.
A border wall in Nogales, Ariz. U.S. officials said in July that they detected more than 60,000 drone flights within 500 meters of the U.S.-Mexico border in the second half of 2024. Credit…Paul Ratje for The New York Times
Trump administration officials have warned for months about Mexican cartels using drones near the U.S.-Mexico border, saying they are used to surveil border agents and smuggle drugs.
Mexican officials have publicly been more skeptical, downplaying the threat drones pose at the border.
What is clear is that drones have become a prominent tool and weapon used by Mexican cartels across Mexico in recent years, according to cartel operatives, security analysts and some government officials on both sides of the border.
Steven Willoughby, director of the counter-drone program at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, testified to Congress in July that U.S. officials detected more than 60,000 drone flights within 500 meters of the U.S.-Mexico border in the second half of 2024 — or 326 flights a day — many at night and above the 400-foot maximum altitude allowed for drones.
He added that U.S. officials have seized thousands of pounds of drugs transported across the border on drones since 2019, including over 1,200 pounds in the second half of 2024. In October 2023, he said U.S. officials intercepted a drone carrying 3.6 pounds of fentanyl pills traveling from Mexico into the United States. He suggested officials had arrested more than 1,500 people in relation to such drone activity at the border.
Noting that Mexican cartels have been repeatedly shown to use drones in their warfare inside Mexico, Mr. Willoughby told Congress, “It is only a matter of time before Americans or law enforcement are targeted in the border region.”
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico disputed Mr. Willoughby’s July testimony the next day in her morning news conference. She said that Mexican officials had observed the cartels using drones against one another inside Mexican territory, but not at the border.
“There is no information regarding new drones currently at the border,” she said.
She added that U.S. and Mexican officials were collaborating closely at the border but that drones were not an issue there. “There is communication, there is coordination. There isn’t anything, let’s say, to be particularly alarmed about right now,” she said.
Mexico’s navy secretary, Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, added in the July news conference that the cartels’ drones “have not been detected at the border.”
On Tuesday, Ms. Sheinbaum again disputed U.S. officials’ characterization of the threat of drones at the border.
“There is no information about the use of drones at the border,” she said in her morning news conference, shortly after news broke about the temporary closure of the El Paso airspace. She said that even though Mexican airspace was not closed, her government would investigate why the U.S. side was closed. El Paso sits along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Yet security analysts and one Mexican state security official said the cartels have been using drones at the U.S.-Mexico border for surveillance and smuggling drugs.
Over the past year, officials have seen a rise in cartel drone activity at the border, including for drug smuggling and monitoring U.S. law enforcement movements, according to a Mexican state security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss security matters publicly.
The Cartel Jalisco New Generation, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations, has the financial muscle to acquire and deploy advanced technology for its operations. About a decade ago, it was the first major cartel to make systematic, large-scale use of drones, adapting different models for surveillance, combat and transport.
In Michoacán state, the center of a territorial war involving the Jalisco cartel and rival groups, officials have documented the widespread use of drones to drop explosive devices, terrorizing rural communities. Cartel operatives there have used drones capable of carrying up to 50 kilograms of explosives, the Mexican official said.
James Wagner contributed reporting from Mexico City.
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Feb. 11, 2026, 10:55 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Reporting from San Antonio
Mayor Renard Johnson of El Paso said the airspace closure caused a series of chaotic events around the city. Many medical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces, N.M., about 45 miles northwest of El Paso, for example, he said.
“I want to be very, very clear that this should’ve never happened,”Johnson said. “You cannot restrict air space over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership.” He added: “That failure to communicate is unacceptable.”
Feb. 11, 2026, 10:43 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Reporting from San Antonio
Renard Johnson, the mayor of El Paso, said at a news conference that many local officials remained in the dark about why the F.A.A. took such a drastic action. “Our community was scared, because someone decided to shut down our airspace. You just cannot do that,” he said.
Image
Credit…Paul Ratje for The New York Times
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Feb. 11, 2026, 10:33 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Two people briefed by Trump administration officials about the temporary closure of the El Paso airport said that the F.A.A.’s decision to shut down the airspace around the facility was prompted by the Defense Department’s use of new counter-drone technology and concerns about the risks it could pose to other aircraft in the area. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, as well as officials from the White House and the Pentagon, claimed Wednesday that the Defense Department responded to a cartel drone incursion, but made no mention of the new technology.
Feb. 11, 2026, 10:32 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Asked about Trump administration claims that a Mexican cartel drone incursion into the United States caused the airspace closure, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said that “there is no information about the use of drones at the border.” She said that if the F.A.A. or the U.S. government had any information about it, they could ask her government.
She declined to speculate about what happened. “We have to maintain what we have always maintained: permanent communication.”
She said that even though Mexican airspace was not closed, her government would investigate “exactly the causes of why” the U.S. side was closed. El Paso sits along the U.S.-Mexico border, across from Ciudad Juárez.
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Credit…Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Feb. 11, 2026, 10:04 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
In July, Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Homeland Security Department, testified before Congress and asked lawmakers to continue the program. He said that 27,000 drones had flown within 500 meters of the border over six months in 2024, piloted by organizations hostile to law enforcement.
Those drones can cause major disruptions to American infrastructure, Mr. Willoughby said, adding that his program works with the Federal Aviation Authority “to properly coordinate the use of each piece of equipment at specific locations and times to ensure that impacts to the national airspace system are minimized.” He did not go into detail on the nature of the anti-drone technology the DHS is testing.
Feb. 11, 2026, 10:02 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Representative Veronica Escobar said that while the El Paso restriction had been lifted, the restriction for southern New Mexico airspace remained in place. Asked if she knew the reason for the continued restriction, she said, “I do.” But she declined to elaborate.
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Feb. 11, 2026, 10:00 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Representative Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, said in a news conference that the explanation citing Mexican drones crossing the border as the reason for the closure was “not the information that we in Congress have been told.” She said that there was no current or past threat to the area. “There’s no threat. There was not a threat, which is why the F.A.A. lifted this restriction so quickly,” she said. “The information coming from the administration does not add up.”
Feb. 11, 2026, 9:57 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Veronica Escobar, the congresswoman representing El Paso, pushed back on the drone explanation given by Trump administration officials: “There have been drone incursions from Mexico going back to as long as drones existed. So this is nothing new,” she said at a news conference. “The drone incursion from Mexico — obviously not something any of us want to see. But this is not unusual, and there was nothing extraordinary about any drone incursion into the U.S. that I’m aware of.”
Feb. 11, 2026, 9:53 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
According to a social media post by the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, Mexican cartel drones breached U.S. airspace, prompting temporary closure of airspace over El Paso. The Defense Department took action to disable the drones, Mr. Duffy said. Another person familiar with the situation had described the cause of the shutdown as a test of anti-drone technology. It is unclear if the brief airport closure was directly related to the presence of drones or how the technology was deployed.
Feb. 11, 2026, 9:47 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Aviation reporter
Southwest Airlines said that it would resume flights to and from El Paso International Airport after it had paused operations in response to the F.A.A.’s now-rescinded airspace closure. The airline said that it would continue to honor the policy it put in place for affected customers. Travelers should confirm their flight status, the airline said.
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Feb. 11, 2026, 9:13 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
The brief shutdown was related to a test of new counter-drone technology by the military at Fort Bliss, a nearby Army base, according to a person briefed on the matter.
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Credit…Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
Feb. 11, 2026, 9:05 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Stephen Merelman
The F.A.A. added that there was no threat to commercial aviation and that normal flights would resume.
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Credit…Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
Feb. 11, 2026, 9:04 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
The Federal Aviation Administration said it had lifted the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso that it had imposed last night. “All flights will resume as normal,” the F.A.A. said on social media.
Feb. 11, 2026, 8:33 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Aviation reporter
United Airlines issued travel waivers to customers with flights scheduled into or out of the El Paso airport during the closure. Those travelers can change their tickets without paying a change fee or fare difference if the new flight is scheduled between Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, the airline said.
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Feb. 11, 2026, 8:31 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Aviation reporter
Southwest Airlines said in a statement it had paused all operations at El Paso International Airport, in accordance with the F.A.A. notice. “We have notified affected customers and will share additional information as it becomes available,” the airline said.
Feb. 11, 2026, 8:03 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Reporting from San Antonio
Veronica Escobar, a congresswoman who represents El Paso, said the move by the F.A.A. to shut down the El Paso airport for 10 days was “unprecedented.”
“From what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning, there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas,” she said in a statement. “We have urged the F.A.A. to lift the Temporary Flight Restrictions placed on the El Paso area. I will continue to make information public as I learn it.”
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Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times
Feb. 11, 2026, 7:29 a.m. ETFeb. 11, 2026
Reporting from San Antonio
Chris Canales, an El Paso city representive, said that while there was no reason to believe the city is in any “kind of imminent safety threat,” the lack of clarity from the F.A.A. was fueling fear and misinformation. “What’s especially troubling is that there appears to have been no advance notice to local government, airport leadership, or even local Air Traffic Control or local military leadership,” he said in a statement. A grounding of all flights for 10 days could cost the city millions of dollars, he added.