Several weeks ago, I covered how the Trump administration was threatening to pull customs from airports in some cities, thereby restricting international flights to those places. The suggestion was so outlandish that it was hard to take seriously. However, it sounds like this wasn’t a joke, and this is something the administration still working toward. We’re now learning more about what these plans could look like…
Mullin wants to pull customs from airports to punish cities
Markwayne Mullin is Trump’s new Homeland Security Secretary, after the abrupt firing of Kristi Noem earlier this year. The former Oklahoma Senator is known for making headlines, but this has to be among the most absurd I’ve seen (along with the time he wanted to fight a union president in the Senate).
In early April 2026, during an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Mullin was asked about lack of local law enforcement cooperation in so called “sanctuary cities.” Mullin responded with the following:
“I believe sanctuary cities is not lawful, I don’t think they’re able to do that. So we’re gonna take a hard look at this. This one area we may take a hard look at is that some of these cities have international airports. If they’re sanctuary cities, should they really be processing customs into their cities?”
“Seriously, if they’re sanctuary cities, 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 was caught off guard by that comment, so followed that up with the following question:
“So you’re saying that big cities that are sanctuary cities that have a big airport, they might lose their customs?”
Mullin responded as follows:
“Well, I’m saying we’re going to have to start prioritizing things at some point. Right now, remember, the Democrats are wanting to defund Customs and 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?”
There’s now an update, as The Atlantic is reporting that this wasn’t just a flippant remark he mentioned one time. Instead, it’s something that’s actually being worked on. According to this report, on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, Mullin convened a small group of airline and travel industry executives at DHS headquarters, where he told them about these plans.
The idea is that we could see major restrictions on airport customs facilities in the coming months, with the changes most likely being implemented in July 2026 and beyond, when the United States is done hosting the World Cup. Again, we’ll see if anything comes of this, but it’s quite something to see this still being discussed weeks later with industry executives.
This is such a laughable threat to even make
Folks in the Trump administration are known for making a lot of threats, though this one definitely ranks up there, if you ask me.
There’s no official definition of what constitutes a “sanctuary city,” and for those not familiar, the term refers to places where local authorities limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The Trump administration does publish a list of places that it considers to be sanctuary cities.
That includes cities like Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, etc. So yeah, make no mistake, the threat here is that they’re thinking of shutting down customs at most of the biggest airports in the country. Maybe Vasu Raja’s El Paso global domination strategy wasn’t so bad after all, it just came before its time…
To state the obvious, this would have absolutely catastrophic implications for airlines. I mean, airlines would basically be left without coastal hubs, perhaps aside from American in Miami. This just strikes me as such an unbelievable waste of time.
Bottom line
The new Homeland Security Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, is threatening to pull customs from the country’s biggest airports, over lack of cooperation from “sanctuary cities.” I totally get that this guy wants to flex however he can, but essentially threatening to ban international flights at the country’s biggest airports doesn’t seem like a winning strategy on any level.
This idea was first floated on Fox News several weeks back, and many wondered how serious this was. As it turns out, it’s completely serious, apparently, to the point that Mullin just met with airline industry executives last week to discuss the plans.
As far as I’m concerned, they should do it — don’t just talk the talk, but do it. The big question is whether United CEO Scott Kirby will still be singing Trump’s praises if the carrier’s entire international network is just centered around Houston. 😉
What do you make of Mullin threatening to shut down international service at the country’s biggest airports?