The Donald Trump Administration is exploring plans to suspend international flights and customs processing at major U.S. airports located in sanctuary cities, as those cities that do not cooperate with immigration authorities in the federal Government’s deportation campaign are called. If carried out, it would affect some of the country’s largest cities, where international traveler traffic is highest, such as New York, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, all governed by Democrats.
In an interview with Fox News, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin stated: “We should not be processing international flights” to the so-called sanctuary cities, where he suggested that “local radical left Democrats” do not allow immigration agents to do their job “nor enforce federal laws.”
Mullin was responding to protests that have taken place in recent days in front of the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey. The demonstrations to support several detainees who have started a hunger strike protesting the conditions in which they are held have turned violent in recent days. Armed federal agents with rifles have used pepper bullets, tear gas, and Taser guns against the protesters.
“They are preventing, through barricades, our employees from entering and leaving the facilities. So, why are we processing international flights at that airport?” he said in the Fox interview, referring to Newark International Airport, located just a few kilometers from Delaney Hall. Mullin explained, however, that no concrete measures have been taken yet. “We are currently developing plans,” he said.
In practice, the measure could paralyze international air transport and trade at the main airports of Democratic states, just as millions of foreign tourists are expected to arrive en masse for the start of the FIFA World Cup next month. Eight matches of the tournament, including the final, will be held at the New York-New Jersey stadium, MetLife. The closest airport to that stadium is Newark.
This is not the first time Mullin has considered suspending international flights to certain cities. Last month he already indicated that he was considering withdrawing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from sanctuary city airports. CBP and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)—agencies that provide security and conduct immigration processing at airports—are part, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of the Department of Homeland Security.
Mullin took over from Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security at the end of March with the purpose of reducing ICE’s exposure in the media, but with the same goal of carrying out the largest deportation in history ordered by Trump. The protests at Delaney Hall—and his response to them—are his first major test as secretary. His predecessor was heavily criticized for her handling of massive protests against the White House immigration agenda that arose in cities like Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens were shot dead by immigration agents during demonstrations earlier this year.
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Hunger strike
For almost a week, hundreds of migrants at Delaney Hall have been participating in a hunger and labor strike. The detainees demand an investigation into the facility and its operations. The Trump Administration reopened Delaney Hall last year (it had been closed since 2017), making it the first major detention center of the Republican president’s second term.
Since its reopening, the center—1,000 beds and operated by a private prison company—has been the focus of protests. To begin with, local authorities have always argued that the facility resumed operations without the required municipal permits. In May last year, Newark Mayor, Democrat Ras Baraka, was arrested outside the center when he came for an oversight visit but was denied entry.
For months, migrants detained at the center have complained to their families and political representatives about the conditions inside: inadequate and even rotten food, insufficient medical care, the impossibility of having their loved ones visit them… In June 2025, after several days of riots inside the center in response to these conditions, four men escaped from the place.
The hunger strike that began last Friday has been supported by volunteers and protesters gathered outside the center. The gatherings have varied in size, from dozens of people to more than a hundred. On Monday, New Jersey Governor, Democrat Mikie Sherrill, who has repeatedly called for the center to close, went to the site to show solidarity with the detainees and meet with their families. According to her statement to the press, she requested to enter the ICE center but was not allowed.
Other Democratic politicians have managed to access the facility since the hunger strike began, such as New York Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who visited the center this Wednesday. “Today we witnessed deplorable conditions at Delaney Center, including an active hunger strike, with many detainees under intimidation and fear of retaliation. The food is bad, medical services are horrible, and there is overcrowding. The conditions these people face are not only cruel but inhuman and simply intolerable,” Espaillat said after his visit.
