Mullin Warns International Flights Could Be Impacted Over ICE Protests

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said if states won’t allow local law enforcement to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, it may lead to airports in those cities having international flights no longer permitted at their airports.

Mullin made his comments on Fox News after he said New Jersey law enforcement refused to help ICE agents under attack from protesters in Newark. Mullin said without aid from local law enforcement, he would have to take U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at airports and reassign them to ICE facilities.

“If you can’t process international flights because customs is closed, you can’t obviously process international flights coming in from out of the country,” Mullin said.

Mullin said local police and state police were called to help protect the ICE facility but would not respond. He said if things did not change, CBP officers would be taken from the airports and international flights in those cities would not be processed. Mullin added that flights that can’t be processed by CBP officers would not be permitted into the country.

“We are not going to halt the flights. We are just not going to process them because we won’t have officers there,” Mullin said.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, visited Delaney Hall, a privately operated ICE detention facility, on Wednesday, according to a statement released by Booker.

Booker said he spoke with dozens of detainees who described inadequate medical care, poor food, limited ability to communicate with family members, and poor living conditions.

“I believe that most Americans, if they saw who is being held and the conditions under which they’re detained, would agree that this facility is a moral stain on our nation,” Booker said.

Booker also said many of the detainees he spoke with had no criminal history involving violence.

The senator previously called for Delaney Hall to be closed and has backed legislation aimed at increasing oversight of ICE detention facilities.

Mullin said the detention facility in New Jersey is holding murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and “serious criminals.”

“This isn’t a Holiday Inn,” Mullin said. “We’re not providing luxury housing. We are providing a sanitary place for them to be detained.”

The illegal immigrants were being held in safe conditions with three meals a day, he added.

The protests were “political theater,” Mullin said.

“I have no respect for people who would rather defend criminals than actually pay attention to their safer streets because of ICE and President [Donald] Trump’s policies,” Mullin said.