Speaking on Fox News on May 28, 2026, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened to remove Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in U.S. “sanctuary” cities that restrict local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. When asked whether this would halt international flights at major hubs like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, Mullin said: “won't be able to process them because we won't have officers there.”
Mullin framed the redirection as necessary to protect DHS personnel at a Newark detention facility that has been the site of protests — including the May 26 Memorial Day incident in which ICE pepper-sprayed Sen. Andy Kim (see ICE Agents Pepper-Sprayed Senator Andy Kim on Memorial Day Outside a Detention Center Where 300 Detainees Were on Hunger Strike). CBP officers at airports of entry perform the federally mandated function of processing arriving passengers, U.S. citizens included; removing them effectively closes that processing.
Critics across the spectrum, including former CBP staff and immigration policy analysts, said the threat would inflict massive economic damage and would block U.S. citizens from re-entering the country at their own home airports. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (American Immigration Council): “This would be deliberately stabbing the US economy in the back.” The Atlantic separately reported DHS has begun meeting with airline executives about the implications.
The Independent (May 28) reported the same threat in parallel; Mullin made the comments while polling shows Trump's approval at 35%. The proposal mirrors past Trump-administration patterns of using federally-controlled infrastructure as leverage against state and local Democratic officials.
Mullin escalated the threat in late May. After protests outside the Newark ICE facility (see Detainees at Newark's Delaney Hall Launch a Hunger Strike Over Conditions; ICE Tear-Gasses Protesters and Bars the Governor From Entering), he told Fox News his department is “currently drawing up plans” to stop processing international flights into sanctuary cities “where the local radical-left Democrats aren't allowing us to do our jobs and enforce federal laws.” An analysis cited by SFGate identified roughly a dozen major airports that could be affected, including SFO, LAX, O'Hare, Denver, JFK, and Newark, several of them United hubs. Reuters noted the move could halt international travel and commerce just as millions of visitors arrive for the FIFA World Cup. Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy distanced himself, telling a congressional hearing, “We shouldn't shut down air travel in a state that doesn't agree with our politics.”