NM delegation blasts FAA over El Paso airspace closure

LAS CRUCES — Congressman Gabe Vasquez on Wednesday said there was no evidence of a national security emergency justifying the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso and southern New Mexico.

Early Wednesday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration abruptly closed airspace to regular flight activity for a 10-mile radius and about 18,000 feet over El Paso, Texas, for 10 days. It partially lifted the restriction after a few hours amid conflicting accounts of the circumstances leading to the FAA's action.

On Wednesday evening, the airspace had partially reopened but remained closed over part of southern New Mexico. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the Pentagon and White House officials said an incursion of drones connected to Mexican criminal organizations required an emergency response, including the airspace closure. The Associated Press and other outlets, as well as members of Congress, said initial reports pointed to a Pentagon decision to test high-energy laser weapons against drones.

In a written statement and an interview with the Journal, Vasquez — a Democrat serving his second term in the House of Representatives — expressed frustration with inconsistent accounts of the closure from federal agencies.

“Miscommunication at the highest level caused the FAA to make this very rash decision, that would have had great impacts on our border economy, on local residents, on medical flights, and so much more,” he said.

The congressman said information provided to him and his staff pointed first to an abrupt rollout of counter-drone technology but later, in public statements from the Pentagon and Duffy, to cartel drone activity, which is not unusual.

At a news conference Wednesday, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said,  "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's district includes El Paso. 

Vasquez told the Journal, “At best, they are mischaracterizing the reason for the closure and at worst they are covering this up.”

Although the radius of closed airspace extended into southern New Mexico, officials from Doña Ana County and the Border Industrial Association said the restriction did not reach the Doña Ana County International Jetport in Santa Teresa and that there was no disruption to its operations.

Vasquez said activity from drones owned by Mexican criminal organizations to monitor law enforcement activity is commonplace not only near El Paso but in Anapra, Sunland Park and other New Mexico border communities. He also said training exercises and tests of anti-drone technologies are routine in protected airspace near Fort Bliss, White Sands Missile Range and the military buffer zone near Santa Teresa.

The congressman said he, along with Escobar and New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, was seeking a closed-door briefing with the Department of Defense and the FAA to get to the bottom of what happened and how the agencies coordinated in what would have been an unprecedented response to drone activity.

Luján, D-N.M, said in a statement that he wanted answers "about why the airspace was closed in the first place without notifying appropriate officials, leaving travelers to deal with unnecessary chaos."

“The airspace was closed to medical transport, and that means anybody potentially in the early morning hours today that needed medical transport from Las Cruces to El Paso would not have been able to enter into that airspace,” Vasquez said. “This could have grave implications for communities like Deming, Lordsburg, Alamogordo, Las Cruces, all who rely on medevac capability out to the El Paso area for trauma care.”

Air Methods, operator of the Native Air ambulance service, did not respond to queries from the Journal about whether its operations were affected by the closure.

Luján said he was pressing for answers as to why air space over El Paso had reopened, but parts of southern New Mexico including Santa Teresa had not. 

“As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FAA, I’ll continue pressing for clear and accurate information," the senator said. "I hope to receive a full classified briefing as soon as possible.”

Algernon D'Ammassa is the Journal's southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.