DHS Floats Cutting Off International Flights to Sanctuary Cities

Quick hits

• Former first lady Jill Biden says she feared her husband was “having a stroke” during the pivotal June 2024 debate against Donald Trump, according to the BBC.
• Israel’s military has ordered residents across wide stretches of southern Lebanon to evacuate as fighting with Hezbollah intensifies, AP News reports.
• South Korean authorities have detained a Chinese dissident who arrived on the country’s west coast in a rubber boat, per the BBC.
• President Trump said the United States is “not satisfied” with the current state of nuclear negotiations with Iran, the BBC reports.
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune met with Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate Ken Paxton in a notable rapprochement, according to Axios.
• Hundreds of detainees at the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark have entered a sixth day of hunger and work strikes over conditions, The Guardian reports.

Today’s focus

The Trump administration is weighing a sweeping move to pull federal immigration and customs personnel out of airports in U.S. cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, a step that could effectively shut down international arrivals at some of the country’s busiest hubs.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin disclosed the idea during a Fox News interview on Tuesday, telling viewers that the department was “drawing up plans” to withdraw Customs and Border Protection and related services from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. Mullin tied the threat directly to the standoff at Delaney Hall, a privately operated ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, where hundreds of detainees have spent nearly a week on a hunger and work strike to protest conditions and where Democratic members of Congress have joined demonstrators outside the gates.

Mullin singled out Newark Liberty International Airport, questioning why federal officers should continue processing arriving passengers in a city he accused of obstructing ICE operations a short distance away. CBP, the Transportation Security Administration and ICE all sit within the Department of Homeland Security, giving the secretary broad authority over how those agencies deploy staff — though not unlimited authority to withhold statutorily mandated services.

The proposal would land less than two years before the United States co-hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with matches scheduled in metropolitan areas including New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston, all of which have some form of sanctuary policy. Legal analysts cited by the San Francisco Chronicle said any attempt to halt customs processing on that basis would likely face immediate court challenges, arguing that federal law requires CBP to inspect arriving international passengers and that selectively withdrawing those services to punish local policy choices could run afoul of constitutional limits on coercing states and cities.

Sanctuary laws vary widely but generally restrict local police and jails from holding people for ICE without a judicial warrant or from sharing certain information with federal agents. Courts have repeatedly upheld their core provisions, citing the Tenth Amendment’s anti-commandeering doctrine.

What the right is saying

Conservative commentators and administration allies frame the proposal as a long-overdue use of federal leverage against cities they argue have effectively nullified immigration law. In Mullin’s telling on Fox News, the contradiction is plain: “If it belonged to us, we would take care of it,” he said of the Newark facility, asking why Washington should keep “processing international flights into the airport there” while local officials shield protesters blocking ICE staff.

Supporters argue that sanctuary jurisdictions cannot have it both ways — refusing cooperation on enforcement while expecting seamless federal services at their airports and ports of entry. They point to the Delaney Hall strike and the appearance of Democratic lawmakers at the facility as evidence that local political leaders are encouraging defiance of federal authority, not merely declining to assist it. Outlets in the conservative ecosystem covering the Thune–Paxton meeting and Trump’s tough line on Iran portray the airport threat as part of a broader posture of using executive tools assertively after what the White House calls years of lax enforcement.

What the left is saying

Progressive commentators and Democratic officials describe the plan as collective punishment aimed at residents, travelers and local economies that have no role in ICE detention decisions. The Guardian’s coverage of the Newark protests highlights detainees’ chants of “We are not criminals” and complaints about medical care and food, framing the underlying dispute as a humanitarian one that the administration is trying to redirect into a fight over airport jurisdiction.

Legal scholars quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle called the airport idea “likely illegal,” warning it could strand travelers, disrupt cargo and undercut World Cup planning. Democrats argue the move would weaponize basic federal functions — passport control, customs inspections — against cities for exercising lawful policy choices that the Supreme Court has repeatedly protected. Critics also note that closing international processing at hubs such as Newark, JFK, SFO or LAX would ripple far beyond sanctuary city residents, affecting business travelers, tourists and U.S. citizens returning home.

Where it stands

For now, Mullin has described plans, not a final policy, and DHS has not published a timeline, legal memo or list of targeted airports. That leaves significant ambiguity about whether the administration intends to follow through, use the threat as leverage in negotiations with city officials, or test how far executive discretion over agency staffing can be stretched before courts intervene.

What is clearer is the collision course. The Delaney Hall strike is escalating rather than winding down, sanctuary cities show no sign of repealing their ordinances, and the World Cup will bring intense scrutiny to U.S. ports of entry within months. Whether the airport proposal becomes a formal rule, a lawsuit, or a bargaining chip will likely shape the next phase of the broader fight over who controls immigration enforcement on American soil.

By the numbers

• 5+ days: length of the hunger and work strike at the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark as of Mullin’s interview, per The Guardian.
• Hundreds: number of detainees participating in the Newark strike, according to The Guardian.
• 2026: year the U.S. co-hosts the FIFA World Cup, with matches in multiple metropolitan areas that have sanctuary policies, per the San Francisco Chronicle.