The Trump administration has threatened to stop processing international flights in major cities across the United States as a reaction to protests against immigration enforcement. Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, stated during a Fox News interview on Tuesday that the administration is “drawing up plans” to take this action in response to days of clashes at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey.
Sanctuary cities targeted
The plans involve withdrawing immigration processing services at airports in cities with so-called sanctuary laws, which restrict local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Mullin questioned the provision of federal immigration services at Newark Liberty International Airport while Democratic lawmakers were joining demonstrators in criticizing conditions at the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark.
“If it belonged to us, we would take care of it, but it belongs to the city. And they’re barricading our employees from coming in and out of the [ICE] facility. Then why are we processing international flights into the airport there?” he said in the interview.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which provide security and immigration processing at airports, are part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with ICE.
Hunger strike and clashes
For the past five days, hundreds of immigrants detained at the privately run Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark have been on a hunger and work strike, demanding better conditions, medical care, and progress in their immigration cases. On Tuesday evening, immigration officials clashed violently with protesters, deploying pepper spray and Tasers.
The strike and clashes have escalated tensions between Democratic politicians opposing the facility and the Trump administration. On Monday, U.S. Senator Andy Kim was pepper-sprayed by ICE officers. Mullin accused Kim and other Democrats of “spreading smears” about ICE and engaging in political stunts.
Threat to halt flights
During the Fox News appearance, Mullin threatened to end the processing of international flights in sanctuary cities. “If they’re going to not allow us to go out and arrest the ‘worst of the worst’… then why are we processing international flights into the airport there?” he asked. He added that they are “currently drawing up plans to say: Listen, in these sanctuary cities, where the local radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws – then we shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities, either.”
Sanctuary policies do not prevent ICE operations but limit some collaborations between local officials and federal immigration enforcement.
Oversight visit
On Wednesday, the hunger strike continued inside Delaney Hall. Congressman Adriano Espaillat of New York was able to enter the detention center for an oversight visit. “The conditions, the food conditions are horrible. We feel that they’re not getting medical services. We feel that they’re overcrowded, and they’re denied their fundamental rights,” Espaillat said. “We will continue to fight to shut this place down.”
