February 12th, 2026Santa Fe New Mexican: New Mexico's congressional delegates demand answers on El Paso airspace closure

New Mexico’s congressional delegates are demanding answers after a sudden closure of airspace over El Paso and a nearby area of southeastern New Mexico disrupted flights early Wednesday morning amid a dispute between the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA announced late Tuesday it was closing the airspace around El Paso and Santa Teresa for 10 days. Some travelers were stranded briefly before the closure over El Paso was lifted Wednesday morning.
Initial reports on the reason for the closure led to further confusion, with an official blaming a “cartel drone incursion.” The Associated Press later reported the Pentagon had planned to test a laser to shoot down drones operated by Mexican drug cartels, causing friction with the FAA.
“Medical evacuation flights had to be diverted, commercial air carriers were forced to cancel as many as half their flights for the day, and people were left stranded,” U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat whose district includes Southern New Mexico, said in a statement. “The American people deserve better than the chaos and lack of transparency we keep seeing from this Administration.”
An area west of Santa Teresa along the Mexican border was still closed to flights Wednesday, although the Doña Ana County International Jetport was not affected, according to Vasquez’s office.
Despite a meeting scheduled later this month with the FAA to discuss the issue, sources told the AP, the Pentagon wanted to go ahead and test a laser targeting cartel drones, which are common along the border, prompting the FAA to shutter the airspace to ensure commercial air safety. It was not clear whether the laser was deployed.
Earlier Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a response to an incursion by Mexican cartel drones had led to the airspace closure and that the threat had been neutralized.
Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “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 did not say how many drones were involved or what specifically was done to disable them.
“What I can say definitively about the El Paso airport closure is that there was not a threat to the El Paso airport or its airspace and there was no legitimate reason to shut it down,” U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich wrote in a post on X. “Now we need answers about why airspace in New Mexico still remains closed.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján shared similar thoughts after meeting with FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford on Wednesday.
“While I am still seeking full details, one thing is clear: travelers should not have had to endure the chaos they experienced,” he said.
Luján said he would keep pushing for more information.
“As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FAA, I’ll continue pressing for clear and accurate information,” he said. “I hope to receive a full classified briefing as soon as possible.”
Forty-three flights, totaling more than 5,900 seats, were scheduled to depart from the El Paso airport Wednesday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Seven departing flights had been canceled as of midday Wednesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware — as well as another seven flights scheduled to arrive at the airport. About a dozen more were delayed.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat whose district includes El Paso, said neither her office, the city of El Paso nor airport operations received advance notice of the closure. She said she believed the shutdown was not based on Mexican cartel drones in U.S. airspace, saying that “is not what we in Congress have been told.”
Pentagon officials declined to comment on Escobar’s remarks and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office referred questions to the FAA.
“I believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,” Escobar said during a news conference.
Vasquez said the Trump administration’s statements have been “misleading at best and a cover-up for their incompetence at worst.”
He also expressed skepticism over their account of events, saying the Trump administration “has provided no proof of a drone incursion that would warrant this large scale, 10-day response.”
“Through my conversations with federal and local officials, it has become abundantly clear the FAA was tracking the DOD’s counter drone tests for multiple days, and the FAA responded — in error — with the disproportionate response of abruptly closing our airspace for 10 days,” he said.