Mullin Floats Idea to Pull Customs Officers From Airports in Sanctuary Cities
“If they are sanctuary cities, should they really be processing customs into into their city?”
New DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has an interesting idea to force sanctuary cities and states to cooperate with the federal government over immigration.
How about losing customs officers at airports located in those cities?
Mullin suggested the move in an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News:
BAIER: The issue here is that you have states and cities that are sanctuary states and cities, and that’s part of the issue. It’s part of the problem. We saw it in Minnesota. How do you get around that?
MULLIN: Well, I believe sanctuary cities, it’s not lawful. I don’t, I don’t think they’re able to do that. And so we’re going to take a hard look at this. This one area we may take a hard look at is some of these, some of these cities have international airports. If they are sanctuary cities, should they really be processing customs into into their city? If they’re a sanctuary city and they’re receiving international flights, and we’re asking them to partner with us at the airport, but once they walk out of the airport, they’re not going to enforce immigration policy. Maybe we need to have a really hard look at that, because we need to focus on cities that want to work with us.
BAIER: So you’re saying that big cities that are sanctuary cities that have a big airport, they might lose their customs?
MULLIN: Well, I’m saying we’re going to have to start prioritizing things at some point. Right now, remember, the Democrats are wanting defund Custom Border Patrol. Well, who processes those individuals when they walk off the plane? So I’m going to have to be forced to make hard decisions. Who’s willing to work with us and partner with us? Once again, I’m not going outside the policies that Congress passed for me, and we’re not trying to push those to some but we’re saying you got to partner with us.
Mullin: I believe sanctuary cities is not lawful. Some of these cities have international airports. If they are a sanctuary city, should they really be processing customs into their city? We need to have a really hard look at that.
Baier: So you are saying that big cities that… pic.twitter.com/UAJxWFZtZI
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 6, 2026
WOW.
Sanctuary cities limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has made it known she won’t honor an ICE detainer for an accused murderer unless the agents have a judicial warrant, which they do not need.
Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York are sanctuary cities.
All of them have massive airports that receive plenty of international flights.
Minneapolis is a sanctuary city. I land in Minneapolis when I return from Poland in June.
The DHS funding bill circulating in Congress won’t address Mullin’s concerns in this clip.
I don’t know how these cities could cry to Congress over Mullin’s threat. It sounds like something Congress could not alleviate.
The cities would simply have to abandon their sanctuary status. Do you think the leaders would do that?
Trump Derangement Syndrome has rotted their brains. Sticking it to Trump is more important to them.
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ironically,,its the blue cities that need the most policing
They can hire more social workers.
All I will say is…
Do It! Do It!! DO IT!!!
And consider moving the agents out of Logan airport and putting them into the airport in Manchester NH. 🙂
look the same scenario is and has developed as in any civil war
disagreements that would at one time be debated are now settled in the streets >>>courts that have proven favorable to the racists
the left is eating up the terrain and spitting out vermin and venom to the civil crowd who just wants maga
2020 was a proving ground on who would win…and that was proven to be the left
the no let no crisis go to waste was a success
the left dominated even with trump in office as pelosi and the msm weaponized every single inch of terrain that they could
hospitals and courts and businesses fell in line with the msm edicts as presented to them and back and forth from the dnc
the jan6 protests turned into a mini re-enactment of the boston tea party with the brits/dnc winning
if you want to avoid violence then the only antidote is to re-take the public schools from the lefty unionists which will lead to the msm being forced into a maga pov
short of that
stop the funding of public schools
ok ok thats not likely to happen
then learn how to “drone”
Punishing, but not effective. They can just as easily catch a domestic flight to the sanctuary city.
I’m not saying I don’t like it, it would screw them of a lot of port fees, but mostly just hosing Americans flying abroad for business and pleasure.
The airlines would shift operations for international flights to Red States away from deep Blue sanctuary jurisdictions. After a brief transition period most passenger travel wouldn’t really be impacted beyond an additional leg, which practically everyone in ‘flyover country’ already experiences. Those in the Blue coastal metropolitan areas who now just take a taxi to the airport for a.direct international flight will have a period of adjustment to the experience of the rest of the Nation.
The point here is to bust up the preconceived notions that the status quo must always remain in place and that there must never be consequences for lefty antics. Remove the Customs folks and there’s no international flights. That means flight ops move to other Cities ….taking the jobs with them. Not just direct jobs but plenty of indirect jobs as well as the ‘prestige’ of hosting an international airport. That’s a blow to the ego of Blue metros.
For that matter ….seaports might be on the menus as well. If State and Local gov’t refuse to cooperate with Federal LEO they don’t have to….but the Feds don’t have to cooperate with them either. Tough break about the current east/west coast sea port traffic redirected to Gulf of America ports, GA and the Carolinas.
The jump would be an added increase for travelers too. So Seattle flights have to land in Spokane and take a connecting flight whereas before they didn’t have to.
I have no love for blue cities, but there’s other more effective levers that don’t punish productive citizens. You have to credit Trump 2.0 on pulling the levers that punish the grifters and cheats. They have been superb at it and I don’t think this meets their standard.
… and I ZERO love for all the employment visas flying in and out of blue cities as well. So saying this is not a good idea is like chugging vinegar right from the jug.
Would have to be further inland than any Washington State location as it has been designated a ‘Sanctuary State’.
How does changing which airports offer international flights from X to Y overly burden the public? Sure the folks who benefit from the current locations will be inconvenienced but no more so than the folks who lack an international airport today. Most of the USA lacks direct international flights. Those in LA and NYC and so on can figure out how to book a domestic leg to new international departure location just as the rest of ‘fly over country’ does today.
Busting the status quo is gonna be required. Inflicting meaningful consequences on the political class, their political supporters, voters and the businesses who fund them is part of it. They could always reverse their Sanctuary policies to avoid disruption before the implementation. Afterwards will be too late as capital investment to new runways, gate expansion and so forth will have been made in new Red State locations. Not to mention the possibility of exclusive, long term public/private partnership agreements between the Feds and the airport authorities in alternative locations and the airlines themselves to secure the necessary funding to expand capacity to become the new international airport gateways.
I like it. The major problem I’m seeing (and have seen) is that the Liberals who vote the communists into place have begun crying that their taxes are getting excessive and have begun to move to more Conservative states for lower taxes thereby creating a major discoloration
The point is not to burden the citizen travelers of the state.
The point is to deprive the state of the traffic and therefore the revenues that come along with operating an international airport.
Mullins could go further than that. First pull immigration control officials from airports in sanctuary cities and states. Think of Dulles Airport in Virginia or O’Hare Airport without immigration control officers there. It would put a bit of a crimp in their business. The ultimate punishment would be to pull air traffic controllers from such airports. It would shut them down.
Just pull TSA. That shuts them down completely as well.
Could do that, but then they could hire private replacements meeting TSA standards.
Not sure they could do that. Feds regulate airports I;m thinking. Someone chime in who knows please.
Pull all but one, so its technically open for business but with a 20 hour wait in line.
Interesting idea, but pretty much shuts down a big chunk of international air traffic. Most of the major hubs (Chicago, New York, DC, Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Salt Lake, Seattle, SFO and LAX, etc.) are off the table. Only airports of any size are then in Texas and Florida. I guess Cincinnati and Kansas City, along with Indianapolis, Nashville and Louisville become hubs again. The airlines would scream bloody murder. And if you shut down Customs for processing people, you may as well shut down international air cargo as well. That would get the corporations yelling.
I’m not convinced that you could make that kind of shift without seriously breaking air travel and commerce. Doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done — just means that they need to be prepared for the blowback.
https://cis.org/Map-Sanctuary-Cities-Counties-and-States
is SLC off the table? I did not realize that they had gone sanctuary. but then I left utah behind for greener, REDder pastures
Do it, if they want to be Lawless then pull resources away from them.
I love Mullin’s line of thinking. Use every tool at the federal government’s disposal, to force the lawless, insurrectionist and subversive Dhimmi-crat fifth columnists into compliance. Take away every cent of federal money, where it hurts. Eliminate airports’ ability to process foreign entry, at airports. Hit them again and again, until they comply.
Hey DHS Sec, how about setting up new requirements in the Marshall Islands that foreign national women be given a pregnancy test upon arrival at the Airport POE and show the results to the CBP Officer while being inspected before admission into the country. If they test positive, they can be denied entry for reasons of becoming a public charge.
It would put a crimp in the current fiasco.
All are big cities. All have large international airports. All are sanctuary cities. Simply have the FAA withdraw permission for international flights to land at those cities. And let the democrats howl in impotent outrage.
eot
I’d love to see Washington International and Dulles International become… just Washington and Dulles.
DHS has only two choices as it runs out of money. One is to lower the level of coverage at most/many airports to the point where all of them are effectively denied necessary CBP services (due to being seriously under-staffed) or it can shut down operations at some airports in order to maintain full services at others. The latter entails making decisions concerning what airports will loose CBP coverage completely. Non-cooperation with federal law enforcement is as good a metric by which to make those decisions as any.
Absolutely. Continuing in the same vein the ongoing shortage of ATC personnel may require shifting staff to locations which appreciate and cooperate with the Federal government as the traffic levels of those airports will increase.
shipping illegals to chi and nyc was the only reason trump won the majority of the blk votes he received as they saw the incursion up close and personal and when it affected their “security” they went off the reservation and joined in with trump
pull tsa and then declare the airfields unsafe to land in and pull atc out
too radical??
well letting children decide their autonomy and anatomy is radical
changing america from capitalism to communism qualifies too as radical
the list can go on longer than we care to acknowledge
Stop floating and do it!
The impact of such a change to the airlines would be ginormous.
Everything an airline plans revolves around markets/city pairs.
An example; maintenance staffing at a particular station is predicating on aircraft types both for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. International flights are largely over water with 2 engine aircraft. Theses are ETOPS (Extended twin engine operations) flights and they need ETOPs pre departure checks performed by ETOPs qualified technicians.
Just one example but the list is endless and the reorganization would be incredibly expensive.
In addition many businesses make location resource allocations based on airline service type and frequency.
Do this in JFK, ORD, LAX and SFO for 30 days. Add MSP just for spite. Watch the sanctuary status disappear almost overnight.
Leave MSP without customs permanently as a constant reminder. And for spite.
I would start with Portland and MSP.. The international fly’s there can be easily handled by other airports and passengers can get connections if their destination is Portland or Minneapolis.
In addition these two cities and states are in virtual rebellion against federal law enforcement. No reason that US customs should help their economic competitiveness with other cities and states.
I am not sure how this makes any big impact. I live in a sanctuary city Syracuse and sanctuary Onondaga County whether it is spelled out or not. We live in fear due to the crime wave. Our insurance is through the roof on cars and homes now due to the incessant thieves. I have to pack up and move because I am not getting work here while they have thousands of VISA workers doing janitor jobs and other lower level jobs and the county proudly still touts it’s DEI hiring process for county workers. All they will have to do is fly into Toronto or Montreal instead and hop a bus into the US. I want to see more mass removals instead of a trickle.
Mullin has to follow through if he wants to have credibility. The screeching in the other room will be off the charts, but Mullin can wear earplugs and keep going. Only extreme measures will yield the desired results.
It’s concerning that someone in a position of considerable authority, and a former senator, is unfamiliar with the constitution, and with a state’s tenth amendment right not to cooperate with the federal government.
But pulling immigration and customs agents from those cities’ airports, which would mean they could not longer receive international flights, sounds to me like a good idea.
As is their right.
Which they don’t need for what? They don’t need it in order to arrest someone they find on the street, or on private property if they have the owner’s permission, but they do need it in order to enter private property without the owner’s permission, including state and local government property. They do need one in order to compel a state or local government to hand the person over. She’s saying that she’s not going to voluntarily hold the guy; she’ll only do so if she legally has to, i.e. if they have a warrant for him.
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