El Paso: You Are Not Free To Move About The Country

Pittsburgh Ref · Feb 11, 2026

NYT:

F.A.A. Halts All Flights at El Paso Airport for 10 Days
No flights would be allowed to or from the airport for 10 days under a flight restriction order that cited unspecified “special security reasons.”

...

The airport said in a statement that the restriction had been issued “on short notice” and that it was waiting for additional guidance from the F.A.A. In a notice, the F.A.A. said the federal government “may use deadly force” if an aircraft violating the airspace is determined to pose “an imminent security threat.”

A man who answered the phone Wednesday at the F.A.A.’s special operations support center said he did not know why all flights had been halted and did not expect any update for hours.
.............

This is fine.

Cascarino's Pizzeria · Feb 11, 2026

Guess we can't trust the old El Paso under Trump

Wonder if this has to do with going after Mexican cartels "on the land" since we've totally eradicated them "on water"

bigredfutbol · Feb 11, 2026

The parallel with the threats to shut down the Gordie Howe bridge jumps out at me. An autocratic regime wants to control the ability of the population to leave the country as well as control and restrict immigration.

dapip · Feb 11, 2026

My humble guess is that they're going to drop bombs in some areas of Mexico near the border, a flagrant violation of international law.

Q*bert Jones III · Feb 11, 2026

I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here but I'm living in Mexico for a bit so I'm not 100% loving these developments.

Pittsburgh Ref · Feb 11, 2026

Sorry--gift link

ElNaranja · Feb 11, 2026

There's also a major ICE facility in El Paso known for looking at the Geneva Convention as a checklist rather than a no no list.

Just saying.

Pittsburgh Ref · Feb 11, 2026

ElNaranja said: ↑

There's also a major ICE facility in El Paso known for looking at the Geneva Convention as a checklist rather than a no no list.

Just saying.
Click to expand...

Good call; Laughlin AFB is near but looks like mostly a training site

Pittsburgh Ref · Feb 11, 2026

Guardian's finally got it:

...

The restrictions came so suddenly, with the FAA providing only three hours’ notice, that radio communications from El Paso international airport revealed a dumbfounded pilot of a passenger plane being told that they would not be able to leave the next day.

An air traffic controller can be heard asking the arriving Southwest flight if they plan to depart again. “Nah, we’ll go to the hotel,” the pilot can be heard saying.

“Roger,” replied the controller. “Just be advised there is a [temporary flight restriction] going into effect … at 0630 for the next 10 days.”

“So the airport is totally closed?” the pilot asks with a chuckle, to which the controller responds: “Apparently, we just got informed about 30 minutes to an hour ago.”
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Sure hope nobody on that flight was planning anything time-sensitive, like medical care. Guess they could always to to Ciudad Juarez for their continuation flights. (That was a thing in San Diego, lotta flights out of Tijuana since they were cheaper, but that's been a minute. Closest thing here is driving to Cleveland!)

bigredfutbol · Feb 11, 2026

ElNaranja said: ↑

There's also a major ICE facility in El Paso known for looking at the Geneva Convention as a checklist rather than a no no list.

Just saying.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine opined that a possible outbreak of some disease at the local ICE concentration camp was--sadly--the least-worst case explanation for this.

Cascarino's Pizzeria · Feb 11, 2026

Local channel reporting that airport has been re-opened. Saying Mexican cartel drones caused the closure.

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted the closure on the airspace in El Paso, and all flights will resume as normal after the FAA had grounded all flights to and from El Paso on Tuesday night.

According to CNN, Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace, an administration official told CNN, which triggered a temporary airspace closure over El Paso.

The airspace closure was prompted by a US military operation related to drug cartels, according to two sources briefed on the matter.

https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/faa-grounds-all-flights-to-and-from-el-paso-until-feb-20

Q*bert Jones III · Feb 11, 2026

Q*bert Jones III said: ↑

I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here but I'm living in Mexico for a bit so I'm not 100% loving these developments.
Click to expand...

Trying to beat @American Brummie at his own game.

russ · Feb 11, 2026

In 1916,it was Pancho Villa.Now,its drones.Who will be our Black Jack Pershing?
-Victor Davis Hanson after his tenth Jim Beam (support American distillers!)

chaski · Feb 11, 2026

Rosa’s Cantina is back in business!

bigredfutbol · Feb 11, 2026

russ said: ↑

In 1916,it was Pancho Villa.Now,its drones.Who will be our Black Jack Pershing?
-Victor Davis Hanson after his tenth Jim Beam (support American distillers!)
Click to expand...

I'm still baffled as to who decided this guy is an authoritative voice on anything not related to Classical warfare.

russ · Feb 11, 2026

bigredfutbol said: ↑

I'm still baffled as to who decided this guy is an authoritative voice on anything not related to Classical warfare.
Click to expand...

Streisand effect from War Nerd dumping on him so often.

ElNaranja · Feb 11, 2026

bigredfutbol said: ↑

A friend of mine opined that a possible outbreak of some disease at the local ICE concentration camp was--sadly--the least-worst case explanation for this.
Click to expand...

There's a couple cases of measles in kids at one or more of these facilities so....

Dr. Wankler · Feb 11, 2026

Q*bert Jones III said: ↑

Trying to beat @American Brummie at his own game.
Click to expand...

You forgot to insult us.

soccernutter · Feb 11, 2026

ElNaranja said: ↑

There's a couple cases of measles in kids at one or more of these facilities so....
Click to expand...

Well, it is Texas.

dapip · Feb 11, 2026

It's only 3.5 hour drive from Roswell NM. Just saying.

superdave · Feb 11, 2026

bigredfutbol said: ↑

I'm still baffled as to who decided this guy is an authoritative voice on anything not related to Classical warfare.
Click to expand...

Didn’t Karl K used to quote him?

Pittsburgh Ref · Feb 11, 2026

Cascarino's Pizzeria said: ↑

Local channel reporting that airport has been re-opened. Saying Mexican cartel drones caused the closure.

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted the closure on the airspace in El Paso, and all flights will resume as normal after the FAA had grounded all flights to and from El Paso on Tuesday night.

According to CNN, Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace, an administration official told CNN, which triggered a temporary airspace closure over El Paso.

The airspace closure was prompted by a US military operation related to drug cartels, according to two sources briefed on the matter.

https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/faa-grounds-all-flights-to-and-from-el-paso-until-feb-20
Click to expand...

Okay I mean unregulated objects in a given airspace would naturally lead to a closure or a restriction.

But why come out of the gate with a 10-day closure?

Also, I'm sure the cartels will have learned their lesson after this, reflect upon their choices to date, and desist from any further repetition.

rslfanboy · Feb 11, 2026

Is closing the airport just theater to trickle-trickle justify martial law or crazy actions against Mexico/cartels?

The drastic shutdown due to drones seems a bit of an over reaction, no?

dapip · Feb 11, 2026

Seems like the best explanation was incompetence...

FAA is incompetent under @SecDuffy’s leadership….how do you announce airspace closure for TEN days over El Paso and scare everyone and then hours later say oh never mind it’s all good now https://t.co/46Sl4cZSOt
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) February 11, 2026

You can stop the WW3 drills.. For now.

bigredfutbol · Feb 11, 2026

superdave said: ↑

Didn’t Karl K used to quote him?
Click to expand...

Maybe? Seems very much in character.

Worth noting, Davis and Christopher Hitchens made quite a few joint appearances back in the day, so he would have come across Davis from that neoconservative discourse, which Karl referenced frequently.

If I had a bit more time to put some thoughts together, I'd start a thread on the role of pundits and public intellectuals in bringing our politics to this point. Guys like Hitchens--the poster child for "being good at expressing opinions gets you more press than being an actual expert"--helped get us here, IMHO.