Mullin backs off Newark airport shutdown threat amid immigration clash

Federal officials stepped back from an abrupt threat to shut down international processing at Newark Liberty International Airport, but the underlying dispute that triggered the warning still hangs over one of the region’s busiest gateways. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in Dallas that he did not need to halt international flight processing at Newark as long as state and local law enforcement continued to cooperate, softening a warning he had made just days earlier.

The reversal came after New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill ordered state police to assume control outside Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed jail run by Geo Group, where clashes between protesters and federal immigration agents had become a weeklong flashpoint. The governor’s office said masked individuals attacked barriers, threw projectiles and lit tires on fire outside the facility on May 31, and local officials imposed restricted protest areas and a curfew around the site.

Mullin had said on Thursday that the administration could stop processing international travelers and cargo at Newark, a move that alarmed airlines, travel groups and business organizations because it could strand passengers, disrupt freight and create chaos at a major international hub. He also said similar action could be taken at airports in Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco if local officials did not cooperate.

The scale of the risk helps explain the concern. The U.S. Travel Association estimated that shutting down international flights at the 18 airports serving sanctuary cities would hit the economy by more than $70 billion and affect 68 million international passengers a year. Newark alone handled 24.5 million international passengers last year, according to NewsNation, while the Port Authority said its commercial airports carried 145.9 million total passengers in 2024 amid record international travel demand.

The timing added another layer of pressure. Newark is a major United Airlines hub, and the airport sits about 12 miles from New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, where FIFA says the 2026 World Cup final will be held on July 19. With foreign visitors expected to arrive for the tournament, any interruption at Newark would have carried consequences well beyond New Jersey’s immigration fight.

For now, Mullin’s reassurance was conditional, not definitive. The decision turned on whether local law enforcement stayed engaged, leaving Newark open but still exposed to the same political clash that put aviation oversight, border enforcement and public confidence on the same collision course.