President Trump’s DHS is putting a new kind of pressure on sanctuary cities.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Sean Hannity that the department is drawing up plans to stop processing international flights into sanctuary cities.
He said the policy has not launched. The planning stage is now out in the open.
If Customs and Border Protection screening is pulled from an airport, international arrivals become a very different problem fast.
🚨 HUGE DEVELOPMENT: Sec. Markwayne Mullin announces DHS is drawing up plans to BLOCK ALL international flights into sanctuary cities by ending Customs screening there
This would DEVASTATE those cities.
Mullin is doing it as a direct result of sanctuaries refusing to cooperate… pic.twitter.com/GRHOWtdipv
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 27, 2026
The point is simple: if local officials fight federal immigration enforcement, President Trump’s team may stop providing the federal airport processing those cities depend on.
Breitbart summarized the Hannity exchange and the Newark-facility clash that Mullin used to frame the warning:
On Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Mullin said plans are being drafted for sanctuary cities where local officials are blocking DHS from enforcing federal law. He said those cities should not expect the federal government to keep processing international flights into their airports while local leaders resist immigration enforcement on the ground.
Mullin tied the issue to clashes around a Newark facility, saying DHS called local police for assistance as roads were barricaded and protesters tried to get through gates. According to his account, local police and state police did not respond to the calls for help.
He said he spoke with the White House about the situation and raised the airport-processing question directly. If city streets around a federal facility are controlled by local officials, and those officials refuse to help DHS move personnel in and out, Mullin argued that the federal government should reassess what it provides to that city.
The policy he described would strike at the federal screening function that lets international passengers and cargo enter the country through major airports. Mullin framed that function as leverage against sanctuary jurisdictions that want the benefits of federal processing without cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
That is the escalation.
Earlier reports described the idea as a threat or possible option. Mullin is now saying the department is drafting plans.
The likely target list has been described in reports and online reaction as including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Newark, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco.
DHS has not released a final public airport roster.
Holy smokes, this is a boss move. 🤯
The leverage Trump is about to assert over sanctuary cities via his DHS is truly next-level catastrophic for them.
The sanctuary city airports that would lose International Flights are:
✈️ Los Angeles (LAX)
✈️ Chicago (O’Hare, Midway)
✈️… https://t.co/Ma04xG8s6F— AwakenedOutlaw⚒️ (@AwakenedOutlaw) May 27, 2026
The airport names matter because these are major international gateways.
LAX, O’Hare, SFO, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, and Newark are not symbolic targets. They are arteries for tourism, cargo, business travel, and returning Americans.
AP described the pushback from the travel industry and from inside President Trump’s own Cabinet:
The travel industry was already on edge after Mullin repeated the threat to withdraw U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in sanctuary cities. Such a move could jeopardize international flights because those flights rely on federal officers to process travelers and goods entering the country.
The U.S. Travel Association said Mullin confirmed in a meeting that he was considering the withdrawal of CBP officers. The group was raising concerns about several administration proposals that could hamper travel, and it warned that pulling officers from major airports would hurt communities that depend on international visitors.
Major airlines also pushed back, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy questioned the idea during a congressional hearing. Duffy said travelers from around the world and around the country need to fly into many different places, and he argued that air travel should not be shut down in a state over political disagreement.
The level of support for the airport move inside the administration remained unclear at that point. The same context fits President Trump’s broader pressure campaign against sanctuary jurisdictions, including his previous threats to withhold federal funding from cities that refuse to cooperate on immigration enforcement.
That resistance shows how big the move would be.
Pulling CBP processing would hit airlines, cargo, hotels, tourism offices, airport workers, and city budgets all at once.
For sanctuary-city mayors, that is the whole problem. The federal government is asking why cities should receive smooth federal airport processing while obstructing federal immigration work after travelers leave the terminal.
No final order has been issued. Still, Mullin’s message was clear: DHS is planning, the White House has been looped in, and sanctuary cities may be staring at a pressure campaign unlike anything they expected.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
