DHS Secretary Floats Pulling Customs From Sanctuary City Airports — JFK, LAX, O’Hare And SFO Lose All International Flights

New Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says they’re ‘looking at’ removing Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in sanctuary cities. That way, international travelers would not be able to fly to these airports. He also suggests that since Democrats are refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security, they should not benefit from it.

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

This would most likely cover New York JFK; Los Angeles; Chicago O’Hare; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Seattle; Denver; Boston; Portland and Newark.

And it would mean an end to all international flights at affected airports. Flights with international pre-clearance at their international departure point would be allowed but are effectively domestic rather than international, and it would make little sense to maintain international departures as one-ways while eliminating arrivals in nearly all cases.

I’m trying to take this seriously, but the suggestion is insane.

• The ‘airports’ frequently aren’t even in the same jurisdiction as so-called sanctuary cities. Washington, D.C. is one, but its airport (Washington National) is in Arlington, Virginia with no Federal Inspection facility. That’s much further out Dulles (Dulles, Virginia). San Francisco International Airport is actually in unincorporated San Mateo County, adjacent to Millbrae and San Bruno, not in the City and County of San Francisco. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is actually in SeaTac, Washington.

  And major airports like LAX (Los Angeles) and JFK (New York City) serve broad areas far beyond the cities with which they’re associated. People in Riverside, San Berndino and Orange County are flying non-stop to Los Angeles.

  

• Customs is not a ‘service for the city’ these are U.S. borders. inspection is not processing people into a city, it is processing entry into the United States regardless of final destination. These hub airports are convenient ways to get to Red States! People from elsewhere in the country are connecting beyond Los Angeles. They still have to clear customs at places like LAX and Chicago. None of this is a municipal privilege.

  

• Attempts to punish lawful activity. The administration may disagree with the idea of sanctuary cities (which is not a legal category, but we’ll use it here even though it condenses a wide range of policies), but these policies generally mean local officials limit how much they help enforce federal immigration law. Congress lacks the power to issue orders directly to the states (this is known as ‘anti-commandeering’). The federal government can, to some extent, penalize non-cooperation but it cannot directly order state and local compliance.

• Customs regulations actually lay out the criteria for where to deploy and that doesn’t include local officials made us mad The regulations lay out need, suitability, facilities, and usefulness as reasons. Withdrawal is based on business volume, inadequate facilities, noncompliance with federal rules, or another location being more useful.

  

• Doesn’t even target punishment at their enemies If the complaint is that local police or jails will not help ICE, then isn’t shutting down the federal inspection point at the airport and pulling officers a self-own? It certainly doesn’t punish the decision-makers, it targets returning U.S. citizens, lawful travelers, airlines, airport workers, tourism, cargo shippers, and everyone trying to move through a legal port of entry. And even in blue cities and states a substantial plurality are the President’s supporters, too.

• Undermines the economy which, by the way, primarily hurts Republicans in the midterms. The Port of Los Angeles supports millions of jobs and handles about 31% of all U.S. containerized international shipping. Southern California cargo is crucial for the national economy, for exporters, workers, retailers, and consumers all over the country.

• What even happens to airline schedules? International arrivals have to be at an airport with a Federal Inspection Station. So flights bound for JFK, LAX, Chicago O’Hare, et al have to go where exactly? And with fuel prices high, probably nowhere? And without international connecting traffic, what do airlines do with connecting flights that are supported by those passengers? Are we heading back to another airline subsidies regime to counteract the damage?

  

I don’t think I can reasonably be described as part of the left. In fact, I was once erroneously introduced on Fox News as the author of View From The Wing Wing. But this is not a smart suggestion even by the DHS Secretary’s own goals and priorities. And here some of you thought that the departure of Kristi Noem from DHS would mean a more serious policy regime. That appears to have been mistaken.

(HT: @crucker)