Topline
Despite strong backlash from the travel industry, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has a “plan to initiate” the removal of customs screening from international airports serving Democratic-led sanctuary cities—even as he walked back pulling U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers from Newark Airport.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin testified Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla)
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Key Facts
Mullin told reporters in Dallas there was “no need” to remove customs officers from Newark Airport after New Jersey increased the level of local and state law support at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, which has attracted protesters for months.
Mullin’s plan to remove customs officers from Newark Airport was “completely ridiculous,” New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mike Sherrill told reporters on Friday, adding that instead of ensuring “people who want to exercise their constitutional rights have the ability to do so … we have these threats coming that they’re going to shut down the international terminal in Newark right before the FIFA World Cup.”
A DHS spokesperson confirmed to Forbes the agency is “currently drawing up plans” for “these sanctuary cities where the local radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws,” adding, “we shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities either,” a verbatim repetition of what Mullin told Fox News last week.
The White House has not approved Mullin’s plan and referred Forbes’ inquiries to DHS.
What Does Mullin’s Plan Have To Do With An Ice Detention Center?
Last week, Mullin said he would pull CBP officers from Newark International Airport because of continued protests at Delaney Hall, a detention facility run by a private contractor on behalf of ICE. Mullin said if local officials didn’t do more to protect the facility, he would shut down customs screening at Newark and shift the CBP officers to the detention center. Subsequently, Sherrill ordered state police onto the front line at Delaney Hall, and enacted a mandatory overnight curfew. In response, Mullin said “as long as we continue to have this partnership with local and state law enforcement, then there’ll be no need” to pull CBP officers from Newark Airport. But Mullin insisted he still has a “plan to initiate” the removal of customs officers from other international airports in Democratic-led sanctuary cities. “This idea that this is only going to hurt blue people in blue cities is either shockingly naive or dumb,” Juliette Kayyem, who served as assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at DHS in the Obama administration, told The Hill.
What Is A Sanctuary City?
Following an April 2025 executive order by President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice (DOJ) was required to identify jurisdictions that “use their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.” The DOJ has identified 18 “sanctuary cities” across the U.S. “based on actions and policies that materially impede enforcement of federal immigration statutes and regulations.” They are: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Berkeley, California; Boston; Chicago; Denver; East Lansing, Michigan; Hoboken, New Jersey; Jersey City, New Jersey; Los Angeles; New Orleans; New York City,; Newark, New Jersey; Paterson, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; Rochester, New York; Seattle; and San Francisco.
Why Has Mullin’s Plan Drawn Criticism?
Within hours of Mullin’s comments on Fox News last week, backlash from the entirety of the travel industry came swiftly. “Pulling CBP officers from airports would cause a severe, self-inflicted economic wound,” the U.S. Travel Association said in a statement. “American citizens trying to get home, international visitors, and the success of a once-in-a-generation global event cannot be used as leverage—as a threat, a punishment or a catalyst for negotiation—in disputes over immigration.” The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents nearly 300 airlines that account for over 80% of total global air traffic, warned Mullin that suspending customs processing at Newark would “raise serious concerns among international partners about the United States’ reliability in upholding its aviation obligations.” In a joint statement, the hotel and airline industry lobby groups said Mullin’s proposal “threatens to cause unnecessary chaos throughout the nation’s air transportation system.” Mullin’s idea even drew fire from within Trump’s Cabinet. “We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told a House Budget Committee last week. “You plan to withdraw CBP officers from airports in cities that don’t roll over for Trump. That is insane,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told Mullin at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon. “It is not only dangerous, it would also spell economic crisis for blue and red states.”
Big Number
$8 billion. That’s how much international visitor spending would be lost if CBP officers were removed from Newark Airport, the U.S. Travel Association estimated.
Further Reading
How Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin Built An Eight-Figure Fortune (Forbes)
Trump Officials Sow Confusion Over ICE’s Role At The World Cup (Forbes)
