Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is facing intense criticism over a proposed plan to withdraw Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from airports in Democrat-run sanctuary cities. The idea, first floated during a Fox News appearance last week, has been met with widespread derision due to the potential for catastrophic travel disruptions across the United States.
Proposal Sparks Outrage
Mullin initially raised the proposal while complaining about demonstrators causing disruption outside a migrant detention center in Delaney, New Jersey. He suggested that if sanctuary cities do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, then international flights should not be processed at their airports. However, critics argue that such a move would primarily harm American travelers, including those from conservative areas.
Juliette Kayyem, who served as assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, described the plan as “a catastrophe” if implemented. She told The Hill: “Our major airports servicing international flights in the United States are at max capacity. Guess who’s on those international flights? Americans, and often they’re red Americans. This idea that this is only going to hurt blue people in blue cities is shockingly naive… It’s either shockingly naive or dumb.”
Industry and Expert Warnings
Airlines for America, the airline industry trade group, echoed Kayyem’s concerns in a statement: “Reducing CBP staffing at major airports would have a devastating effect on the airline and tourism industries, causing a significant operational disruption to carriers, travelers and the flow of international cargo.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, warned: “This would lead to flight cancellations and would snarl air traffic throughout the entire country. The end result would be Americans stranded overseas, unable to get back into the country, and foreign travelers stranded at random locations around the United States, and every traveler dealing with the chaos of rescheduled flights and cancellations.”
Internal Opposition
Even a fellow member of the Trump administration, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, has stated his opposition. During a congressional hearing last week, Duffy said: “We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics.”
When Mullin first aired the proposal on Fox, he argued: “They’re barricading our employees from coming in and out of the facility. Then, why are we processing international flights into the airport there? We’re currently drawing up plans to say, listen, 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. Because 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.”
The secretary said the CBP agents removed from processing tasks would instead be deployed “helping our ICE agents,” despite their lacking the necessary training for enforcement work.
Broader Criticism
The tensions in New Jersey are the first major test of Mullin’s leadership of the DHS since he succeeded Krisi Noem in April. He has also been criticized by Greg Bovino, who served as Border Patrol commander-at-large under Mullin’s predecessor before being stood down after Operation Metro Surge into Minneapolis in January proved a disaster and saw two protesters shot dead by federal officers.
Bovino last week made fun of Mullin’s family plumbing background, saying: “Mullin’s a great guy, great plumber, no doubt about that; he could probably fix a leaky faucet. But a hundred million illegal aliens is not a leaky faucet.” Bovino has also attacked other Trump administration officials like border czar Tom Homan and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and posted a picture of himself on X at an airport, volunteering to fly into Newark and restore order.
When asked about Bovino at a press conference in Dallas, Texas, Monday, Mullin said: “I never met the guy. He’s irrelevant to me. I don’t know who he is.”
