Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is facing criticism over a proposed plan to withdraw Customs and Border Protection agents from airports in Democrat-run sanctuary cities.
Mullin first floated the idea during an appearance on Fox News last week in which he complained about demonstrators causing disruption outside of a migrant detention center in Delaney, New Jersey. But his suggested reprisal has been met with derision over the widespread travel chaos it would likely cause.
Juliette Kayyem, who served as assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Homeland Security under Barack Obama, said the move to pull CBP officials away from their usual screening duties would prove “a catastrophe” if actioned.
open image in gallery“Our major airports servicing international flights in the United States are at max capacity,” Kayyem told The Hill.
“Guess who’s on those international flights? Americans, and often they’re red Americans. This idea that this is only going to hurt blue people in blue cities is shockingly naive… It’s either shockingly naive or dumb.
“And my only hope is that the airline industries are making this case a little bit more diplomatically than I’ve been.”
Airlines for America, the airline industry trade group, has indeed echoed her concerns, saying in a statement: “Reducing CBP staffing at major airports would have a devastating effect on the airline and tourism industries, causing a significant operational disruption to carriers, travelers and the flow of international cargo.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, also agreed, warning: “This would lead to flight cancellations and would snarl air traffic throughout the entire country.
“The end result would be Americans stranded overseas, unable to get back into the country, and foreign travelers stranded at random locations around the United States, and every traveler dealing with the chaos of rescheduled flights and cancelations.”
open image in galleryEven a fellow member of the Trump administration, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, has stated his opposition, telling a congressional hearing last week: “We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics.”
When he first aired the proposal on Fox, Mullin said of the New Jersey protesters: “They’re barricading our employees from coming in and out of the facility. Then, why are we processing international flights into the airport there?
“We’re currently drawing up plans to say, listen, these sanctuary cities where the local radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our jobs and enforce federal laws, then we shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities either.
“Because they don’t want us to enforce immigration, but they want us to process immigration at their facilities. Nothing about that makes sense to me.”
The secretary said the CBP agents removed from processing tasks would instead be deployed “helping our ICE agents,” despite their not having the necessary training for enforcement work.
The tensions in New Jersey are the first major test of Mullin’s leadership of the DHS since he succeeded Krisi Noem in April.
He has also been criticised by Greg Bovino, who served as Border Patrol commander-at-large under Mullin’s predecessor before being stood down after Operation Metro Surge into Minneapolis in January proved a disaster and saw two protesters shot dead by federal officers.
Now pouring scorn from the sidelines, Bovino last week damned Mullin with faint praise by making fun of his family’s plumbing background.
“Mullin’s a great guy, great plumber, no doubt about that; he could probably fix a leaky faucet,” the former official said. “But a hundred million illegal aliens is not a leaky faucet.”
Bovino has also attacked other Trump administration officials like border czar Tom Homan and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and posted a picture of himself on X at an airport, volunteering to fly into Newark and restore order.
Mullin was asked about Bovino at a press conference in Dallas, Texas, Monday and said: “I never met the guy. He’s irrelevant to me. I don’t know who he is.”