The United States’ head immigration official is leaning toward pausing international air traffic to several West Coast airports in a controversial and chaotic move.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, fresh off his stint in the Senate before taking over from Kristi Noem, said he is “drawing up plans” to end customs processing in sanctuary city airports.

Such a move would impact major international flight centers on the West Coast, including LAX, Denver, Seattle-Tacoma International, and San Francisco.

All four of those cities are known as sanctuary cities, meaning they do not fully cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and have left-leaning politics.

He floated the idea last week but received pushback from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

“We have people from around the world and around the country that need to be able to fly into all different kinds of places,” Duffy said. “We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics.”

In an April 6 Fox interview, Mullin had openly questioned whether sanctuary cities with international airports should “be processing customs.”

“Seriously, if they’re a sanctuary city, and they’re receiving international flights, and we’re asking them to partner with us at the airport but once [immigrants] walk out of the airport they’re not going to enforce immigration policy, maybe we need to have a really hard look at that because we need to focus on cities that want to work with us,” he told Fox News chief political anchor and “Special Report” host Bret Baier.

Asked whether cities would lose customs enforcement for international travelers, the DHS secretary responded: “We’re gonna have to start prioritizing things at some point.”

“Right now, remember, the Democrats are wanting to defund Customs and Border Patrol,” Mullin added.

Airports impacted could also include those in New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

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