The US Federal Aviation Administration lifted a notice on Wednesday grounding all flights to and from El Paso International Airport in Texas several hours after it said they were halted due to “special security concerns”.

The airport, ​which sits next to U.S. Biggs Army Airfield ⁠ and sits over the border with the Mexican city of Juarez, originally announced in an Instagram post that all flights were suspended shortly before midnight on February 11 for a period of 10 days.

Shortly before 9 a.m. ET Wednesday, the FAA said the closure of the airspace over El Paso had been lifted.

“There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will continue as normal,” the federal agency said in a social media post.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on social media that the FAA and the Department of Defense “acted quickly to respond to the cartel drone intrusion.”

Duffy said the threat had been “neutralized,” without elaborating.

Airline sources previously told Reuters the grounding was believed to be related to the Pentagon’s use of counter-drone technology to address drone use by Mexican drug cartels on the US-Mexico border.

Democratic lawmakers questioned the administration’s explanation and why there was a need for the 10-day measure.

“The administration’s statement that this shutdown was related to a Mexican cartel drone entering US airspace — that’s not my understanding,” said Rep. Veronica Escobar, whose congressional district includes El Paso.

Escobar said she spoke with an unidentified federal government employee, but was limited in what she could share at this time.

“We who live in El Paso have probably known that there have been drone incursions from Mexico since drones have been around,” she said.

The Mexican president is unaware of the US claims

When asked about the temporary suspension, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that she did not know drones were being used on the border with the United States.

Sheinbaum said Mexico’s defense and navy ministers will meet with U.S. Northern Command officials in Washington on Wednesday in a meeting that will include several other countries.

Sheinbaum said Mexican officials would be “listening” at the meeting.

“They are not taking any position other than the one we already know, which is the defense of sovereignty,” she said.

El Paso, with a population of about 680,000 people, is the 23rd largest city in the US. The airport there received 3.49 million passengers in the first 11 months of 2025, according to the website, including passengers flying on all major US airlines such as Southwest, Delta, United and American.

Airspace closures over an American city are extremely rare, but have occurred notably across the country following the September 11, 2001, attacks.

“Medical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces,” El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “All air operations were grounded, including emergency flights. This was a major and unnecessary disruption, not seen since 9/11.”

In mid-January, the FAA warned airlines to be cautious when flying over Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, citing risks from potential military activity.

Tensions between the US and regional leaders have risen since the Trump administration launched a major military build-up in the southern Caribbean, attacked Venezuela and captured its president Nicolás Maduro in a military operation.

US President Donald Trump said in January that drug cartels run Mexico and suggested the US could attack land targets to fight them, one of a series of threats to deploy US military forces against the cartels dating back to his 2024 presidential campaign.