Unauthorized drones may no longer fly over a strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border under a temporary flight restriction that took effect Friday, a step the Homeland Security, Transportation and War departments said is meant to counter cartel drones. The ban runs from ground level to 400 feet and reaches one nautical mile north of the border.
The Transportation Department said it coordinated the move with the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, and it announced the immediate ban as help for ongoing security missions, including against illicit cartel activity, Bloomberg reported. In their joint statement, the departments said the restriction would lower the risks to border security operations, protect federal personnel and facilities, and strengthen enforcement against anyone who violates it.
"This action will help counter cartel drone threats, protect our personnel, and strengthen security in the airspace above the border," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said President Trump had kept his promise to secure the southern border and that the administration was now "doubling down on that promise by protecting our skies from cartel drone threats and other illicit activities."
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the restriction gives commanders "greater awareness, greater decision space, and more options to defend the Homeland," and that troops armed with directed energy weapons and other advanced technology "will shoot down any cartel drone that threatens America's sovereignty."
Military officials have described a growing problem. Brig. Gen. Brian Filler of Joint Task Force-Southern Border recently told reporters that the military had detected 378 drone incursions along the border in the previous 30 days and that the trend was rising, Fox News reported on Wednesday. He said the aircraft were typically commercial drones carrying cameras, used for surveillance tied to smuggling and human trafficking.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told the network that the agency detected more than 37,000 drone flights near the border in fiscal 2026, after more than 42,000 in fiscal 2025. Border Patrol already runs counter-drone operations across the entire southwest border and up to 100 miles inland, with the homeland security secretary's approval under authority granted by Congress, the spokesperson said.
The restriction applies to civilian pilots as well. Its 400-foot ceiling covers the normal operating altitude of most recreational drones and many commercial missions, the trade publication DroneLife noted, and unlike restrictions that protect a single facility or event, it sets up a corridor along the international border.
The Federal Aviation Administration will publish a formal notice to pilots, known as a NOTAM, with links to its domestic notice and its drone data delivery system, the Department of Homeland Security said, adding that operators are responsible for checking every applicable restriction before they fly. The announcement did not say when the restriction expires or how an operator could get permission to fly inside the corridor, details DroneLife said would have to be confirmed through the FAA notice.