The threats at the southern border are getting more sophisticated.
Donald Trump was left with a mess on his hands.
And Trump moved to shut down one scary threat that the Border Patrol can't stop.
The Threat Biden Refused to Stop
Cartel drones.
More than 60,000 flights in just six months of 2024 – that's 330 incursions every single day.
Biden's DHS tracked every one and did nothing.
These aren't migrants on foot or drugs in trucks.
Mexican cartels flew military-grade surveillance aircraft over American territory while Biden's administration refused to shoot them down because it was "too risky."
Compare that to Biden's response when drones buzzed Langley Air Force Base for 17 consecutive nights in late 2023.
Biden's people were briefed and did nothing.
Shooting them down was "too risky" and jamming signals was "unauthorized."
The Weapon Biden Refused to Acknowledge
Not hobby quadcopters – military-grade aircraft carrying 220 pounds of cargo, explosives, and surveillance equipment tracking Border Patrol movements.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel built a "Drone Operators" unit responsible for 42 attacks killing 21 people between 2021 and 2025.
Sheriff Leon Wilmot in Arizona's Yuma County found hundreds of feet of colored string on roads – tethers cartels used to drop drug payloads into American backyards.
"The cartels have unlimited budget, and they're going to do what they need to do to get their product across, and they do not value human life," Wilmot said.
In October 2023, CBP seized one drone carrying 3.6 pounds of fentanyl pills – enough to kill tens of thousands of Americans.
CBP seized more than 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine transported by drone in the second half of 2024 alone.
Fiscal year 2025 saw 34,682 drone flights detected near the southern border compared to 7,678 along the Canadian border.
How Cartels Got Ukraine Combat Training
A Mexican operative showed up in Lviv in March 2024 calling himself "Águila-7."
He'd used forged Salvadoran papers to join Ukraine's International Legion and showed up with expert-level drone skills before training started.
He was former Mexican special forces from GAFE – the elite unit whose deserters founded the Zetas cartel.
The cartels embedded operatives to master first-person view combat drones – the weapons killing more soldiers in Ukraine than anything else.
These drones carry explosives and can't be jammed because they use fiber-optic guidance instead of radio signals.
They fly fast enough to hit fortified buildings before anyone reacts.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called drones "the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation."
Mexican intelligence warned Ukraine's security services about Spanish-speaking "volunteers" targeting FPV training units on the front lines.
By September 2025, both major cartels were deploying Ukraine-style FPV attack drones.
Three explosive-laden drones hit a prosecutor's office in Tijuana – one mile from California – blasting cars with nails, BBs, and metal fragments.
"Once somebody does something effectively, everybody else will copy," said Rodrigo Nieto-Gomez, a Naval Postgraduate School professor.
Trump Finally Fights Back
Trump signed an executive order in June 2025 titled "Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty."
"Drug cartels use drones to smuggle fentanyl across our borders, deliver contraband into prisons, surveil law enforcement, and otherwise endanger the public," Trump wrote. "Immediate action is needed to ensure American sovereignty over its skies."
He deployed 10th Mountain Division radar units to the border – the AN/TPQ-53 system tracking incoming rockets and mortars, equipment previously used only on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon launched the Drone Dominance Program to acquire counter-drone technology that works without risking civilian aircraft.
The systems effective in the Middle East – jamming, directed energy weapons, kinetic strikes – endanger commercial flights near border cities.
Biden's FAA sat paralyzed for four years using that as an excuse.
Trump deployed the systems anyway.
The cartels spent Biden's entire presidency upgrading from hobby quadcopters to military-grade attack drones with Ukraine battlefield tactics, building dedicated drone units and conducting 260 attacks in 2023 alone.
Randy Clark, a 32-year Border Patrol veteran, said, “the Trump administration is finally building real momentum in confronting a cartel drone threat the previous administration largely ignored for years."
That's the difference between a President who understands we're under attack and one who thought strongly-worded memos would make cartels stop flying military operations over American cities.
Sources:
- Randy Clark, "ANALYSIS: El Paso Airspace Shutdown Indicates Growing Pains in Trump Admin's Attention to Long-Ignored Cartel Drone Menace," Breitbart, February 15, 2026.
- "Border on the brink as cartel drones force US to act after years of paralysis," Fox News, February 12, 2026.
- "Concerns grow as Mexican cartels embrace drones for drug smuggling, attacks on rivals," Cronkite News, February 14, 2026.
- Stephen Honan, "How Cartels are Adopting Drone Tactics from Ukraine," Small Wars Journal, January 29, 2026.
- Courtney Kube, "How cartels are adopting drone tactics from Ukraine," Defense News, November 14, 2025.
- "Drug cartels are adopting cutting-edge drone technology. Here's how the US must adapt," Atlantic Council, September 29, 2025.
- J.D. Simkins, "Cartels flew drones 60,000 times along US border in six-month period," Border Report, July 24, 2025.
