{"id":569145,"date":"2026-04-07T04:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/569145\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T04:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:36:12","slug":"dhs-threatens-to-halt-international-flights-at-sfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/569145\/","title":{"rendered":"DHS threatens to halt international flights at SFO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government may withdraw Customs and Border Protection officers from San Francisco International Airport<\/a> and other major \u201csanctuary\u201d hubs, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the move actually goes through, it would effectively halt international travel at SFO, one of the nation\u2019s busiest airports.<\/p>\n

In his first interview since being sworn in as secretary, Mullin told Fox News\u2019s \u201cSpecial Report\u201d<\/a> that the Department of Homeland Security is reviewing whether jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities should continue to receive federal customs processing services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re a sanctuary city, should they really be processing customs into their city?\u201d Mullin asked. \u201cIf they\u2019re a sanctuary city and they\u2019re receiving international flights, and we\u2019re asking them to partner with us at the airport, but once they walk out of the airport, they\u2019re not going to enforce immigration policy \u2014 maybe we need to have a really hard look at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal marks a significant escalation in the Trump administration\u2019s long-standing battle with Democratic-led cities. If implemented, the withdrawal of CBP personnel would leave airports like SFO and JFK in New York unable to process arriving international passengers, forcing airlines to reroute thousands of daily flights.<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office immediately denounced the idea<\/a>, citing the potential for a catastrophic disruption to the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you thought the economy was bad with Trump\u2019s war driving prices at the pump up \u2026 just wait until international travel is halted at some of the busiest airports in the world,\u201d Newsom\u2019s press office posted on X. \u201cTalk about a stupid idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal experts noted that such a move would likely face immediate challenges in federal court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick III of San Francisco previously issued an injunction<\/a> prohibiting the Trump administration from retaliating against sanctuary jurisdictions by withholding federal funds or services.<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta told the Chronicle in January that the administration\u2019s threats are \u201ccompletely lawless,\u201d adding, \u201cWe\u2019ll stop him in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullin\u2019s comments come amid an ongoing partial government shutdown triggered by a stalemate over DHS funding. The secretary accused Democrats of \u201cholding the country hostage\u201d by refusing to fund agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to have to be forced to make hard decisions,\u201d Mullin told Fox News. \u201cWho is willing to work with us and partner with us?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government may withdraw Customs and Border Protection officers from San Francisco International Airport and other major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3805,2356,3,10836,111,5284,2427,21,19,22,20,25,78759,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-569145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-peninsula","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-travel","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-us-and-world","22":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}