sanctuary city – With the 2026 FIFA World Cup weeks away and the New York–New Jersey region expecting more than a million visitors, federal officials are weighing changes that could reshape how international flights are processed at major airports like JFK and LaGuardia. The p
For weeks. preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup have centered on one big promise: a global tournament. smooth arrivals. and an easy welcome at New York’s busiest gates. Then. at the federal level. the conversation turned sharper—toward whether international flights should keep flowing into sanctuary city airports at all.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin confirmed in an interview with CBS News. But Mullin also said the department is considering upending the international flight process for certain airports. including JFK and LGA. in response to sanctuary city policies.
In comments to Fox News this week. Mullin described what the agency is “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.’”.
The timing matters. The tournament is just weeks away, and it is expected to bring over one million people to the region from across the globe.
This isn’t a new line of thinking for Mullin. Last month, he said he was considering pulling Customs and Border Patrol officers out of sanctuary city airports.
“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.”
In the administration’s view. the issue is straightforward: sanctuary cities are places that limit what information is given to federal immigration officers. In this dispute. New York City is explicitly on the list—labeled a sanctuary city by the administration—raising the prospect that the largest city in the country could face significant repercussions during the World Cup.
Multiple trade agencies for travel have warned that the move would cause serious disruptions. with many of the biggest travel hubs in the United States falling into sanctuary city jurisdiction. The breadth of the sanctuary city list in the Department of Justice’s catalog underscores how wide the impact could reach. even beyond New York.
That DOJ sanctuary city list includes: Albuquerque. New Mexico; Berkeley; Boston; Chicago; Denver; East Lansing. Michigan; Hoboken. New Jersey; Jersey City. New Jersey; Los Angeles; New Orleans; Newark. New Jersey; Paterson. New Jersey; Philadelphia; Portland. Oregon; Rochester. New York; Seattle; and San Francisco.
If Customs officers were taken out of sanctuary city airports. the consequences would land directly on travelers moving through some of the country’s most familiar entry points. Mullin said the administration has discussed stopping processing international fliers through border patrol at some of the largest airports if sanctuary cities did not comply.
It also fits a broader pressure campaign the president has used before. In the past, the president himself has threatened to cut funding to sanctuary cities.
Even with the heightened talk, key details remain unresolved. It isn’t immediately clear how Mullin would go about implementing the rule, or whether DHS would follow through with it.
What is clear, though, is the collision between high-stakes immigration enforcement decisions and a major global event scheduled to pull more than a million visitors into the New York–New Jersey region in a matter of weeks.
Trump airport threat JFK LGA ICE DHS Markwayne Mullin sanctuary city World Cup 2026 New York immigration enforcement Customs and Border Patrol international flights