For a few hours on Wednesday, the sleepy airport of El Paso, Texas, became a sudden flashpoint for confusion.
Late Tuesday night, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a terse notice to pilots that airspace in the area would close — for an unprecedented 10 days — due to “special security reasons.” And then almost as suddenly, the FAA lifted the restrictions Wednesday morning.
Conflicting accounts of what prompted the action in the first place quickly emerged.
Trump administration officials including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the shutdown was in response to drones operated by Mexican drug cartels that had breached US airspace. Duffy said in a social media post that the FAA and Defense Department “acted swiftly” to address the incursion, and had “neutralized” the threat.
Others with knowledge of the situation paint a different picture, one that suggests a communication breakdown between key parts of the US government.
The FAA closed the airspace because the Pentagon was flying drones and testing high-energy laser technology to counter unmanned aircraft, as part of an initiative to combat possible threats from drones operated by cartels, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the people said the Pentagon drones were operating outside of normal flight paths.
The contrasting accounts drew the attention of lawmakers from both parties, including senators calling for a classified briefing, indicating the issue may draw additional scrutiny.
The military activities were being carried out in airspace near the El Paso International Airport, which shares airspace with a US Army base, raising concerns at the FAA about possible interference with civilian aircraft, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the information isn’t public.
The FAA and the Defense Department were set to meet about the safety impacts of that counter-drone technology on Feb. 20, but the department wanted to move faster, one of the people said.
The FAA didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Defense Department did not respond to requests for comment on the testing of counter-drone technology or the coordination with the FAA on safety protocols. The Army declined to comment and referred questions about the issue to the Defense Department.
The different explanations have fueled confusion over what prompted the highly unusual move.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said during a daily news conference that her government would look into the reasons behind the airspace closure in Texas.
“There is no information about the use of drones at the border,” she said.
Representatives Rick Larsen, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and André Carson, the ranking member of the panel’s aviation subcommittee, called the situation “unacceptable.”
In a statement, they blamed legislation that expands the Defense Department’s counter-drone authorities for allowing the Pentagon “to act recklessly in the public airspace.”
Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, told reporters that “the details of what exactly occurred over El Paso are unclear.”
He said lawmakers would like to get a classified briefing soon. The comments came after FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford briefed senators about the agency’s air traffic modernization efforts.
Bedford said he would respond directly to Cruz about a classified briefing but wouldn’t answer further questions from reporters about El Paso.
Federal authorities provided no advance notice to local government, the airport or local military presence prior to the closure, said Chris Canales, a member of El Paso’s city council.
“We have no reason to believe that there is any kind of imminent safety threat to El Paso, but we still have no reason for the flight restriction provided by the FAA or any federal authority,” he said in an email to Bloomberg Wednesday before the restriction was lifted.
Senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security told lawmakers last year that Mexican drug cartels used weaponized drones to attack one another and could threaten US military or law enforcement, and sought help to combat drones used by criminal groups for surveillance and smuggling.
President Donald Trump has vowed to combat Mexico’s cartels, which have increasingly been using drones to smuggle drugs over the US’ southern border. The decision to shut down airspace so close to the border with Mexico triggered speculation that the military could be moving to deliver on Trump’s repeated threats to strike drug trafficking organizations on land.
The FAA late last year urged pilots to exercise caution because of “heightened military activity in or around Venezuela” as the Trump administration amassed forces in the region. Officials later temporarily closed parts of Caribbean airspace as the US military carried out a stunning raid to capture Venezuela’s then-president Nicolas Maduro.
The US Army has spent years developing directed energy weapons, including high energy lasers, to help counter enemy drones as a cheaper and more versatile alternative to missiles.
Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.
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