Washington Closes the Border Sky to Drones

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — ThreeThree federal departments on Friday announced a yearlong ban on unauthorized drones in the lowest band of sky along the border with Mexico. The temporary flight restriction, from the Transportation, War and Homeland Security departments, runs from the ground to 400 feet and reaches one nautical mile north of the border.

A request to fly there must be sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection at least 48 hours ahead, with the operator’s name, FAA certifications and telephone number, the flight’s date, time and location, and the drone’s Remote ID, make, model and serial number.EmergenciesFirst responders and others answering natural disasters or time-sensitive emergencies may be eligible for expedited coordination by calling Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Aviation Administration’s notice says.

The restriction came by notice, while the FAA’s broader rule for routine commercial flights beyond a pilot’s sight is still awaiting approval. It arrived as a joint announcement and three FAA notices. The rule, known as Part 108, has been under review at the White House’s regulatory office since July 10, its public register shows.

The cost falls on commercial pilots in border cities. DroneXL, a trade site that read the notices, reported that the strip takes in the downtowns of El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville in Texas, Nogales, Ariz., and Calexico, Calif., and that the approval list has no category for routine commercial work or recreational flying.The PenaltiesThe FAA classes the strip as National Defense Airspace, DroneXL reported. A pilot who flies in without authorization can be intercepted, detained, fined, stripped of an FAA certificate or charged, it said; the notices warn that the Defense, Homeland Security or Justice departments may seize or destroy a drone judged a credible threat. “The pilots this rule grounds are the ones who follow it,” its editor, Haye Kesteloo, wrote, adding that a cartel operator launching from the Mexican side “was never going to email CBP for a waiver anyway.”

When the ban begins depends on which federal document one reads. The joint release called it “effective today.” The FAA’s domestic notice, dated Oct. 16, gives its period as Oct. 19, 2026, to Oct. 19, 2027, under NOTAMs ZLA 6/9954, ZAB 6/9978 and ZHU 6/9956. DroneXL reported that the notices themselves take effect at midnight Coordinated Universal Time on Oct. 20, which is Monday evening along the border. The FAA’s notice directs pilots to the NOTAMs for the operative dates and requirements.

In the joint release, the three secretaries cast it as a fight with the cartels. “President Trump promised to secure the Southern Border, and he did. Now we’re doubling down on that promise by protecting our skies from cartel drone threats and other illicit activities,” said Sean P. Duffy, the transportation secretary. Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said the action “will help counter cartel drone threats, protect our personnel, and strengthen security in the airspace above the border.”

Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war, went further: “Equipped with cutting-edge technology—including Directed Energy Weapons—our warfighters will shoot down any cartel drone that threatens America’s sovereignty.”

Equipped with cutting-edge technology—including Directed Energy Weapons—our warfighters will shoot down any cartel drone that threatens America’s sovereignty.

The Pentagon has said there are more than 1,000 drone incursions along the border each month, Reuters reported. Lasers on the border have already disrupted civil flights. In February, Reuters noted, the FAA said it would halt all flights at El Paso’s airport for 10 days because Customs and Border Protection had used a Pentagon laser system without a completed FAA safety review; it lifted the order after about eight hours, following the White House’s intervention. Days later, it reported, the military shot down one of the border agency’s own drones with the laser-based system.

The release emphasized the military’s counter-drone weapons, among them the directed-energy weapons the secretary of war named. It announced no purchase. In April the FAA and the Pentagon agreed to let the government use a high-energy laser counter-drone system along the border, Reuters reported.

The Ground Below

In Portland, Ore., the City Council voted 11 to 0 on Wednesday, with one member absent, to direct the city attorney to notify Oregon’s land-use agency of its intent to “consider a moratorium on the development of facilities necessary to support commercial unmanned aircraft systems.” State law requires written notice to the agency at least 45 days before the final public hearing on such a moratorium; the resolution adopts none.

The resolution names no company, but it follows Amazon’s application last month for a land-use permit to build a drone delivery base at its North Portland warehouse, OPB reported.Prime AirAmazon’s drone service delivers within a 7.5-mile radius of a distribution center, OPB reported. Amazon says it flies items weighing five pounds or less from 11 sites across 10 U.S. metropolitan areas. It has planned to begin in Portland next year. On Tuesday, the day before the vote, Amazon canceled its first meeting with city planners about its planned drone base, a city spokesperson said, OPB reported. KATU reported that the meeting had been set for Oct. 20; Ken Ray, a spokesman for Portland Permitting & Development, told the station no future date had been scheduled. Amazon did not immediately respond to OPB’s request for comment.AMZNNasdaq240.35▼3.44−1.4%Amazon · Friday’s session

“A moratorium, to be clear, doesn’t say this can never happen,” said Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney, who introduced the resolution with Councilor Sameer Kanal, as quoted by OPB. “It just says we’re pausing anything happening here until we can set code.”

Except where a state statute expressly allows otherwise, Oregon law vests the authority to regulate the ownership or operation of drones “solely in the Legislative Assembly” and bars local governments from regulating it. “Portland can’t regulate the flights, so it is working on the ground they start from,” DroneXL wrote.

The next tests are how quickly Customs and Border Protection answers requests to fly in the strip, and whether Portland’s council, once it has given the state its notice, adopts a moratorium.