Multiple drones operated by cartels in Mexico entered the United States, a Trump administration official said on Feb. 11.

“Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace,” the official told The Epoch Times via email.

The War Department disabled the drones, according to the official.

The department and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) then determined that there was no threat to commercial travel.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a press briefing that “there is no information about the use of drones on the border” and that Mexico was going to look into “the exact causes of why they closed” the flights.

Sheinbaum also said Mexican defense and navy secretaries will meet with Northern Command officials in Washington on Feb. 11 in a meeting attended by several other countries.

The FAA had, on early Feb. 11, halted all flights into and out of El Paso International Airport for what it described as security reasons. It had stated that the closure would last 10 days.

The FAA said in a statement at 8:54 a.m. EST that the temporary closure had been lifted and that all flights were resuming as normal.

El Paso is situated in western Texas. The city, which has a population of about 875,000, borders Mexico. Flights often come into El Paso’s airport from Mexico.

“Medical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces,” El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said at a Feb. 11 press conference. “All aviation operations were grounded, including emergency flights. This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9/11.”

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), who represents El Paso in the House, had said that officials gave no advance notice of the closure of the airport and surrounding airspace and that the FAA needed to provide answers.

“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,” she told a briefing, noting that there was “nothing extraordinary about any drone incursion into the U.S. that [she was] aware of.”

Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas) wrote on X that a similar closure occurred in late 2025 in a portion of his district but that the airspace was reopened expeditiously.

The FAA had stated in January that operators should be cautious when flying over portions of Mexico, Central America, and South America because of “military activities” and signal interference. The warning was later lifted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.