Markwayne Mullin Just Revealed the Number That Makes Every Sanctuary City a Death Sentence

California walked convicted murderers and sex offenders out of state prisons in February 2026 because Gavin Newsom decided federal detainers were optional.

Now Markwayne Mullin is telling you exactly what those releases actually cost.

The number he put on the board Thursday makes the sanctuary city argument impossible to defend.

What ICE Actually Finds When It Knocks on That Door

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sat down with Newsmax's The Record Thursday and said something every sanctuary politician in America is praying their constituents never hear.

For every single warrant ICE serves, agents apprehend 4.2 additional criminals.

That's not a rounding error.

Four point two.

Every time agents show up to execute one detainer, they find more than four additional individuals in the same location who shouldn't be here.

People whose continued presence in your neighborhood depends entirely on a local politician's decision to ignore federal law.

Mullin was direct about what enforcement is actually targeting: ICE is focused on the worst of the worst – detainers that liberal states are releasing out of prison.

Not job site raids.

Not showing up at construction sites demanding papers.

Not sweeping immigrant communities for anyone who looks foreign.

ICE is going after people who already have active immigration detainers – convicted criminals sitting in sanctuary jails that Democratic governors and mayors physically refused to surrender to federal authorities.

Every one of those detainers was a documented federal request.

Every ignored detainer was an active choice by a named politician to release a criminal back into the community instead of handing them to ICE at the point of release.

That choice has a price.

Mullin just told you what it is.

The States Turning Their Jails Into Criminal Launching Pads

New York released nearly 7,000 criminal illegal aliens – including murderers – rather than honor ICE detainers.

New York City alone saw a more than 400 percent spike in ICE detainers because sanctuary politicians kept releasing people the federal government had already flagged.

Illinois released more than 1,700 criminal illegal aliens under Governor Pritzker's sanctuary umbrella.

California turned loose sex offenders, drug traffickers, and child rapists while DHS was publicly calling the situation a sanctuary calamity and begging Gavin Newsom to stop.

DHS published the names and convictions of individuals California released in February 2026 – people with records for murder, rape, and drug trafficking who walked out of state facilities because California decided a federal detainer was optional.

These aren't abstract policy disagreements.

These are decisions made by named politicians that put named violent criminals back on American streets.

Then those same politicians forced federal agents to hunt them down in communities, apartment complexes, and neighborhoods rather than catching them cleanly at the jail door.

That's where the 4.2 number comes from.

When ICE shows up for one detainer-released individual, they find the criminal network those individuals operate in.

Four more criminals at every address they hit.

Detainer-released criminals don't vanish into law-abiding communities – they surface in exactly the kind of places ICE ends up searching anyway.

Sanctuary politicians made that math inevitable.

ICE is finding four criminals for every one they came for because the environment those politicians created guarantees it.

Why This Number Should Follow Every Sanctuary Mayor Forever

Democrats spent two years telling you Trump's ICE enforcement was about terrorizing hard-working immigrants.

Mullin's 4.2 figure is the answer to that argument.

ICE isn't going to job sites looking for dishwashers.

They're going after the person who walked out of a Chicago jail with an assault conviction and an ignored federal hold.

And finding four more criminals in the same orbit when they get there.

That's not a mass deportation crackdown on the immigrant community.

That's the direct mathematical consequence of what sanctuary politicians chose to do.

Every time a mayor announces a sanctuary city policy, he's making a bet: that the political reward of refusing ICE is worth the public safety cost of releasing detainer-hold criminals back into his own streets.

Mullin just put a number on what that bet costs every time agents execute a single warrant.

The next time a city council votes to become a sanctuary city, someone should stand up and ask them what they think about 4.2.

Then watch them try to explain why they want that number to stay exactly where it is.

Sources:

• Ian Hanchett, "Mullin: We're Not 'Just Going to All of These Job Sites'," Breitbart, September 3, 2026.
• DHS, "Sanctuary New York Released Nearly 7,000 Criminal Illegal Aliens," Department of Homeland Security, December 1, 2025.
• DHS, "Murderers, Sex Offenders, and Drug Traffickers Released From Jails Directly – California," Department of Homeland Security, February 5, 2026.
• DHS, "Governor Pritzker's Sanctuary Illinois Released More Than 1,700 Criminal Illegal Aliens," Department of Homeland Security, December 8, 2025.
• DHS, "Sanctuary City NYC Sees a More Than 400% Spike in ICE Detainers," Department of Homeland Security, July 23, 2025.