Editorial: DHS Head Threatens Flights to Sanctuary Cities

US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened sanctuary cities with the loss of international flights into their cities during an interview earlier this week with Fox News. He stated “I believe sanctuary cities is not lawful. I don’t think they’re able to do that. And so we’re going to take a hard look at this. This one area we may take a hard look at is some of these cities have international airports. If they’re a sanctuary city, should they really be processing customs into their city? Seriously, if they’re sanctuary city 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 gonna enforce immigration policy. Maybe we need to have a really hard look at that because we need a focus on cities that want to work with us.” 

Editorial – This is an Inchoate Idea

The fact that he had to say “seriously” in his interview clearly indicates how far out of the mainstream this idea is.  Airlines for America and the US Travel Association have reacted as one might expect, meeting with Mullin and DHS to fully outline the disastrous implications for the travel industry if such a policy would be implemented. Given that New York, Newark, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, all major gateways, are sanctuary cities, the loss would likely mean that the majority of long-haul international flights would completely disappear.  With the FIFA World Cup beginning in a couple of weeks, such a stoppage would create chaos internationally. The timing of this threat seems purely to squeeze sanctuary cities with political pressure related to immigration policy differences between political jurisdictions.  

The impact of such a policy would essentially shut down international travel to the US and further negatively impact the travel industry that has already seen a downturn in tourism to the US resulting from the Iran War and reports about aggressive ICE enforcement in international media. Shutting down international travel to the major metropolitan areas in the US would further erode an economy plagued by affordability, inflation, and high fuel prices from the Iran war, which itself lacks public support. It would likely backfire on the administration, and in normal times would be considered dead on arrival. But with an ineffective Congress, it is intended to pressure cities to more fully cooperate with the DHS, despite questionable activities and legality of their actions.  This is essentially a bullying tactic aimed at harming sanctuary cities.

The Bottom Line

This administration has a habit of tearing down institutions that have been build over the 250 year history of the republic and exploiting them for political drama. ICE has been one such element, and now Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may be next. Despite the potential economic and international relations damage, Mullin is “drawing up plans” for that to happen. If it does, it will further cripple transportation and accelerate the continued pullback of US soft power and influence internationally.

Just imagine the outrage if all of the foreign airlines from around the world were no longer permitted to fly to the top travel cities in the US.  That is what Mr. Mullin is proposing.  Here’s why it is certain to fail – it would place a restraint on trade that would likely result in renegotiation of virtually all international trade deals in the wake of such a rash action.  With global travel already falling, this would exacerbate a situation fueled by the Iran War that is already being blamed on the United States by nations around the world.  Closing international arrivals at the major population centers of the US is an inchoate idea that isn’t worthy of consideration, and one that Congress needs to step in to immediately stop.

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