On Tuesday, the new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could pull custom officers from airports in sanctuary cities as punishment for disobeying Trump’s edict on immigration, stopping processing all international arrivals, according to a report from Reuters.
“It’s an option,” Mullin said. “If cities are going to sit there and say that they’re not going to enforce immigration policies, then I’ll repeat myself and say it doesn’t make any sense for us to process international travelers through that city.”
We have no idea whether this is an empty threat, or an action item. But Mullin brought it up in the context of the latest Trump-administration attempt to force Democrats to end the DHS shutdown that’s been in effect since mid February. After ICE killed two citizens in Minneapolis, Democrats refused to pass a funding package for DHS unless it excluded funding for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Since then, there’s been no deal. TSA agents went unpaid for months, forcing travelers to languish in long security lines. Trump brought in ICE agents to speed things up—and then caved days letter and started paying TSA agents again.
Now, without airport chaos as their main bargaining chip, Republicans are scrambling. Mullin’s comment could be just another tactic.
But if Mullin makes good on that threat, it could fuck up the World Cup in Seattle and in most of the US.
Six of the 11 US cities hosting the World Cup are considered sanctuary cities by the Trump administration, including Seattle.
We limit how local police can cooperate with federal immigration officers, even barring them from asking about immigration status. According to the list of sanctuary cities Trump’s Department of Justice published last summer, cities like Seattle “impede enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
Mullin’s threats are another knife in the side for cities getting ready to host World Cup games under a hostile Trump administration. (Yes, even though he is the inaugural winner of the FIFA Peace Prize.) And doing this would be stupid, morally and financially speaking. The US estimates the World Cup will bring in $10.9 billion countrywide. The 750,000 fans expected to attend Seattle’s six World Cup matches will spend about $845 million while they’re here, and the city stands to rake in $96 million of it in sales and admissions taxes, according to FOX13.
According to Reuters, Mullin brought this whole thing up because of Democrats’ refusal to reach a deal to fund DHS, including Customs and Border Protection. He said he’s going to talk with Trump about this idea of pulling customs offices from sanctuary city airports.
“This is just something I’m thinking,” he said. “This isn’t something that I’m necessarily going to do.”
So far, that remains true. Port of Seattle Commissioners Toshiko Hasegawa and Sam Cho indicated they hadn’t heard anything about this “from official channels.”
Mayor Katie Wilson did not respond to The Stranger’s request for comment. Neither did Seattle’s local World Cup group, Seattle FIFA World Cup 26.
Whether or not this happens, the threat is just another Trump-induced headache for host cities. Back when Wilson was first elected, Trump said he would pull the matches from Seattle if there was “the sign of any trouble.” Then, earlier this year ICE announced it would play a “key role” in the “security apparatus” for the World Cup (which Wilson still hasn’t answered our questions about). But, the federal government still hasn’t paid the $625 million it promised to local authorities for FIFA security—it’s another DHS funding pressure point they’re trying to pinch. Plus, he only just greenlit extra transportation funding a month ago. Complicating things for Seattle further, Iran—which was already not pleased that they’d be playing in the Seattle-designated Pride Match—said it would not play in the US because we keep bombing them. Makes sense.
For now, it seems like the World Cup will happen and everyone who paid an arm and a leg for their tickets in Seattle will enjoy the game from way worse seats than they thought they were buying thanks to misleading FIFA ticketing practices.
