When Markwayne Mullin was still a senator, the Oklahoma Republican repeatedly endorsed a radical idea about air travel in the United States: He frequently pitched the idea of stripping all federal aid to airports in so-called sanctuary cities.
During his Capitol Hill tenure, Mullin never made much headway with this, and his rhetoric went largely ignored. Now, however, he leads the Department of Homeland Security, where the secretary is in a position to actually try to implement this idea, which he talked up again during a Fox News appearance on Tuesday night.
“We are currently, which we’re not initiating yet, but we’re currently drawing up plans,” Mullin said, referring to airports in “sanctuary cities” with “local radical-left Democrats.” He added that the federal government “shouldn’t be processing international flights” into these cities. (“Sanctuary cities” refers to areas in which local governments limit police cooperation with federal immigration authorities.)
To be sure, it’s not uncommon to see and hear Republican officials thumping their chests during conservative media appearances, without any real intention of following through on their tough talk. But in this instance, when the DHS secretary talked about “currently drawing up plans,” he apparently wasn’t kidding.
Just last week, for example, Reuters and The Atlantic, among other news organizations, reported that Mullin had privately told U.S. travel executives his department could opt to stop customs and immigration processing for international travelers. Soon after, the U.S. Travel Association said that it had also spoken to the secretary and that he told the trade group’s representatives that he’s serious about these plans.
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In other words, ahead of the summer travel season and World Cup games, the nation’s homeland security secretary is prepared to sabotage airports in cities that fail to cooperate with the administration’s deportation agenda by ending customs and immigration services at the facilities.
It is difficult to say with certainty when or whether the Oklahoman will follow through on this. What’s more, if Mullin actually tried to pull the trigger on the idea, it would face furious pushback from major airlines, businesses that rely on international flights, as well as state and local officials who would argue persuasively that such a policy appears to be illegal. Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said the idea doesn’t make sense to him.
Given the economic impact of such an idea, President Donald Trump himself might be inclined to intervene, if only to prevent his approval rating from slipping even further.
That said, I’ve lost count of how many times in recent months I’ve thought, “That’s too crazy to happen,” only to see that very thing happen anyway. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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