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The US has said it took military action against what it claimed were Mexican cartel drones that had crossed into American airspace, temporarily closing airspace around the border city of El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday.
“Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace,” said an administration official on Wednesday. The Pentagon “took action to disable the drones”.
The Federal Aviation Administration and defence department “have determined there is no threat to commercial travel”, the official added.
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy, whose department oversees the FAA, wrote on X that the aviation agency and Pentagon “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion”.
Washington did not provide any more details about the incident or how the drones were disabled.
“The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted,” the FAA said on X on Wednesday. “All flights will resume as normal.”
The US abruptly closed the airspace around El Paso International Airport late on Tuesday night for 10 days citing mysterious “special security reasons”, with the FAA classifying the area as “national defence airspace”.
The closure brought to a halt all flights in and out of the airport, and would have caused significant travel disruption over the 10-day period. Airspace was also closed around neighbouring Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Mexican airspace was excluded from the FAA’s restrictions.
El Paso is the 23rd most populous US city, with nearly 700,000 inhabitants. It is also home to Fort Bliss, a US army post located right next to the city’s airport. About 45 miles north of Fort Bliss is the army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The Pentagon said it had nothing more to share about the incident or the military action taken against the drones. Fort Bliss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Roughly 3.3mn passengers flew through the El Paso airport in the first 11 months of 2025, according to Cirium, an aviation data analytics firm. There were approximately 120 flights scheduled in and out of the El Paso airport for Wednesday, according to FlightAware.
Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso in the US House of Representatives, had called the closure “unprecedented”, adding that neither her office nor city and airport officials had received advance notice. She later praised the FAA’s lifting of the airspace restrictions.
Chris Canales, an El Paso city council member, had said the city would have taken a $40mn to $50mn economic hit from a 10-day closure.