Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne
Mullin says the Trump administration is “drawing up plans” to discontinue
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing of international flights at
airports located in so-called sanctuary cities across the U.S.
According to TIME,
Mullin said the Department of Homeland Security is “not initiating” the policy “yet”,
but that it is preparing to potentially stop processing international arrivals
in cities where local governments are not cooperating with Immigration and
Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) efforts (despite it being an altogether different
agency).
“In these
sanctuary cities where the local, radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to
do our jobs and enforce federal laws, then we shouldn’t be processing
international flights into their cities either,” Mullin said. “They don’t want
us to enforce immigration, but they want us to process immigration at their
facilities? Nothing about that makes sense to me,” he said during a Fox
News interview on Tuesday.
His remarks came
in response to protests that were held outside an immigration detention center
in Newark, New Jersey, over Memorial
Day weekend. According to Mullin, demonstrations outside the facility
disrupted employees as they entered and exited the building.
“They’re
barricading our employees from coming in and out of the facility. Then, why are
we processing international flights into the airport there?” Mullin said,
according to The
Hill.
Although he made
no mention of specific cities or airports where he hopes to stop CBP from performing
its processing duties, the Department of Justice published a list in 2025 of
those the Trump administration considers sanctuary jurisdictions, Travel
Weekly reported.
They include such important
cities and counties as Boston, Chicago,
Los Angeles, New
York City, Newark, Philadelphia,
San Francisco and Seattle. Many of these major metropolises are governed by
Democrats and are also home to some of the nation’s busiest aviation hubs.
Plane at Newark Airport. (Photo Credit: dima / Adobe Stock)
Despite the fact
that Mullin didn’t offer any specifics when making this latest declaration, members
of the travel industry, as well as immigration experts, are already worried.
The U.S. Travel
Association responded to the secretary’s comments, saying "U.S. Travel
believes such a move would have devastating consequences for the travel
industry and communities that depend on international visitation."
Critics argue that
the proposal would cause widespread disruption to travel and tourism far beyond
the targeted cities.
In a post on
X, Juliette Kayyem, who served as the DHS’s Assistant Secretary for Policy under
President Barack Obama, said, “Of all the bad ideas floated by this
Administration, this one ranks.” She added, “Planes don’t divert to other
airports. The flights will be cancelled, disrupting blue and red voters,
impacting the airlines, and having no impact on immigration policy.”
Aaron
Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, echoed
similar concerns.
“This plan is
actively insane,” he wrote on X.
“Airlines cannot divert large numbers of international flights from one city to
another; they’d just have to cancel flights en masse, causing enormous economic
damage that splashed waaaaay beyond a few big cities that were the target.”
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
