DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin uses his 9/11 speech to rail against sanctuary cities
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sharply criticized sanctuary cities on Friday in a speech reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Mullin accused these jurisdictions, which limit cooperation between local police and federal immigration agencies, of creating the conditions for the next terror attack.
“It’s tough to sometimes fight — and I’m not trying to get political here, but I will — sanctuary cities that they don’t want us to go into,” Mullin told a crowd at Resilience Plaza at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“They can say it’s for humanitarian purposes, but the truth is, when you become a sanctuary city and you’re not supporting law enforcement, when you're not allowing law enforcement to do their job, it’s a safe haven that incubates terrorist activity,” Mullin added.
Sanctuary cities do not stop federal agents from operating in their boundaries but typically prohibit local police and jails from being deputized into carrying out federal immigration work, such as making arrests or holding migrant detainees solely on immigration-related accusations.
Backers of sanctuary cities often argue that jointly conducting immigration operations with federal agencies undermines immigrant communities’ trust in local police and strains budgetary resources.
Even in sanctuary cities, federal agencies have the legal authority to pursue arrests and detain suspected criminals. DHS also has numerous local cooperation agreements with police departments and sheriff’s offices, including in sanctuary states.
The Trump administration has consistently criticized sanctuary cities and has threatened to cut their federal funding.
Elsewhere in his speech, Mullin wondered why the reputation of DHS had become so politicized, given its mission of protecting all Americans.
“Why should the Department of Homeland Security be controversial?” he told the crowd. “We’re taking care of your backyard. Why did it become political? Because some people want to score political points?”
Indeed, under the Trump administration, support for DHS has eroded.
About half of Americans support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a DHS agency, a July poll from The Economist and YouGov found.
Between 2023 and 2025, Americans ceased viewing DHS as generally favorable, the Pew Research Center found.
DHS under Trump has pursued a variety of boundary-pushing tactics compared to predecessors, including using masked agents, sending heavily armed officers to conduct warrantless raids and ramping up arrests at sensitive locations such as schools and medical facilities.
In January, DHS agents fatally shot two American protesters in a matter of weeks in Minneapolis, prompting mass demonstrations.
In the face of these criticisms, former heads of the agency have called for a “reset” at DHS refocusing on the mission of stopping security threats.
“When I stepped into the job of secretary in 2013, the department was still, I think, viewed primarily as security,” Obama administration DHS secretary Jeh Johnson recently told NBC News. “Now I fear in many communities DHS has become a pariah, radioactive, the department of mass deportations, heartless, locking up kids, and that is one of the reasons why I think we need a reset.”
In a statement to The Independent, DHS defended its record under Trump and its overall mission.
“Counterterrorism and immigration enforcement go hand in hand,” a spokesperson said. “Child exploitation, trafficking, terrorism, scams, and smuggling all have a nexus to illegal immigration.”
“Despite multiple Democrat shutdowns of DHS, the Department is more than equipped to keep Americans safe in an ever-changing threat landscape. DHS has been recruiting, reforming, and modernizing at a record pace—including in areas of counterterrorism,” the spokesperson added.
