Bad news for global travelers out of San Francisco if the Department of Homeland Security follows through on a threat to remove Customs and Border Protection officers from airports in sanctuary cities.
During an interview with Fox News on Monday the new secretary for DHS Markwayne Mullin said that the Trump administration is looking at ending customs processing services in cities who have refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
“Some of these cities have international airports — if they’re a sanctuary city, should they really be processing customs into their city?” Mullin said.
“Seriously, If they’re a 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 going to enforce immigration policy, maybe we need to have a really hard look at that because we need to focus on cities that want to work with us.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents operate at more than 300 ports of entry, including international airports, throughout the country.
According to the CBP, numerous international hubs in CA would be affected. Here’s a few.
- San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
- Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- San Diego International Airport (SAN)
- Oakland International Airport (OAK)
If this threat did come to be, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that travel at places like SFO would “effectively halt” international travel. Removing these agents could cause horrendous lines for those trying to re-enter the U.S. or get into the country.
Removing CBP from sanctuary city airports would be in-line with the Trump administration’s policy of terminating federal funding for jurisdictions that prevent local law enforcement and jails from working with federal immigration enforcement agents.
“Starting February 1, we’re not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens,” Trump said during a speech in Detroit.
When the Trump administration deployed ICE agents to airports across the country to relieve the strain on the lack of TSA workers amid the partial government shutdown, SFO was not affected because it contracts its own TSA agents.
The California Post reached out to LAX and SFO for further comment.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office took the opportunity to slam the administration’s plan.
“If you thought the economy was bad with Trump’s war driving prices at the pump up … just wait until international travel is halted at some of the busiest airports in the world,” a post on X from Newsom’s press office read.
“Talk about a stupid idea (no wonder it’s being considered by the Trump Admin).”
The Post reached out to Newsom’s office who said the post on social media speaks for itself.
