US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin says he is drawing up plans to stop international flights from landing in Democrat-run “sanctuary cities” just two weeks before the U.S. co-hosts the FIFA World Cup.
Mullin, 48, the former plumbing company owner who took over the department from Kristi Noem, 54, in March, says he is considering pulling Customs and Border Protection officers out of airports in cities that won’t help Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Under such a plan, the federal government could remove staff who process passport control, preventing any airport concerned from accepting international arrivals.
The plan would be payback for cities that block ICE while still leaning on Washington to run their airports, the DHS chief told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview on Tuesday.
“We’re currently drawing up plans,” Mullin told Hannity, insisting “we shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities” while “radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws.”
The current flashpoint is Newark, New Jersey, where demonstrators have hemmed in the Delaney Hall detention center and, Mullin grumbled, local police won’t shield his agents going in and out.
