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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday that the White House is exploring legal ways to withhold federal funding from sanctuary states and cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
Speaking on “The Ingraham Angle,” Mullin highlighted the arrests of more than 2,100 illegal immigrants in New York and said Immigration and Customs Enforcement will continue deportations despite local sanctuary restrictions.
“Literally 20 minutes ago, I was sitting in the Oval Office of the president, and we were having this conversation about how do we withhold funding legally from these sanctuary cities,” Mullin told host Laura Ingraham.
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services New York field office on Sept. 1, 2026, in New York City. Mullin discussed “Operation Rotten Apple,” an ICE operation that resulted in more than 2,100 arrests across New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“Why are we allowing these sanctuary cities to still get funding from the federal government when it comes to, let’s say, their airport, when we’re processing immigration through these international airports? Why would we be processing immigration policies and immigrants into our state or into a city that is a sanctuary state or sanctuary city? It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he added.
DHS has launched several deportation operations since President Donald Trump began his second term, most recently in New York with an operation dubbed “Rotten Apple.” Mullin said the operation resulted in more than 2,100 arrests, including people accused of murder, rape, child sexual abuse and drug trafficking.
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks during a news conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on July 17, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The DHS secretary told Fox News that Trump and administration officials are looking at ways to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
“President Trump is looking for ways, he had other people that were in the Oval Office with me talking about how can we hold federal funding from these sanctuary cities that are refusing to just simply do one thing, uphold the law of the land,” Mullin said, adding that he and immigration agents “don’t pick and choose which laws to enforce.”
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“I enforce the laws that Congress passed. But Congress and these other liberal politicians, these sanctuary cities and sanctuary states are the ones that are griping the loudest about the work that my [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents are doing every day,” he added.
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According to DHS, one of the illegal immigrants arrested during the New York operation was a Ukrainian national with convictions for kidnapping, abduction resulting in death, criminal possession of a weapon and murder. DHS said another suspect from Colombia had previously been arrested for “course of sexual conduct against a child” and “act in a manner to injure a child less than 17.”
