Category: Politics

One year ago, Gregory Bovino was a low-profile Border Patrol chief overseeing a relatively small stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in California. Just months into President Donald Trump’s second term, however, Bovino emerged as the face of one of the most aggressive immigration crackdowns in U.S. history, leading federal agents as they flooded one predominantly Democratic city after another, making thousands of arrests.

Now that approach has turned into a political liability for Trump. And Bovino, 55, has been dispatched back to California, days after he declared — despite video evidence to the contrary — that the intensive care nurse fatally shot in Minneapolis on Saturday by federal immigration personnel wanted to “massacre law enforcement.”

Bovino’s rapid rise and fall reflects the arc of the Trump administration’s combative immigration enforcement tactics and the mounting public backlash it has generated.

The administration’s enforcement operations in multiple metropolitan areas formed the capstone of Bovino’s three-decade career in U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the nation’s biggest federal law enforcement agency. His visibility also demonstrated the more prominent role that Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem has given to the Border Patrol in urban areas, mostly far from its traditional purview over the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dressed in his signature olive-green uniform and sporting a buzz cut, Bovino led masked agents into American cities like a military commander directing troops into battle. Bovino relished trading insults with critics on social media, posting action videos of his agents’ maneuvers and appearing on the front lines of tear-gas-laced clashes with protesters.

His leadership drew criticism over time, including an admonishment from a federal judge in Illinois, who said the use of force by federal agents “shocks the conscience.” That criticism mounted this month amid Bovino’s forceful defense of the fatal shootings by federal immigration personnel of two American citizens in Minneapolis, Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

Even Trump, who has touted the blue-city operations, seemed to acknowledge that in Minneapolis, Bovino had pushed past the boundaries of traditional law enforcement tactics.

“You know, Bovino is very good, but he’s a pretty out-there kind of a guy,” Trump said in a Fox News interview Tuesday. “And in some cases, that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”

Some former officials of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, said they welcomed Bovino’s departure from Minneapolis out of concern for the agency’s credibility.

“I hope it’s a sign that perhaps there is a recalibration going on about how to approach the enforcement of immigration laws,” said Tim Quinn, a longtime CBP official who resigned last year. “I don’t think agents were well represented by his actions, and I fear that the country’s view of the Border Patrol is going to be negatively affected, but hopefully not irreparably damaged.”

Bovino’s elevated status within the agency was unusual because he didn’t appear to operate within the chain of command, which would require him to answer to senior CBP officials. Instead, he was in direct contact with Noem, said Robert Danley, who retired as CBP head of professional responsibility in December.

“He has a more direct line to the secretary, and he’s able to do what she wants and what he wants,” Danley said.

DHS and Bovino did not respond to multiple requests for comment this week. Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said Monday evening on X that Bovino “has NOT been relieved of his duties” and called him a “key part of the President’s team and a great American.”

Nick Sortor, a conservative influencer whose arrest at an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Portland won admiration from Trump, has championed Bovino’s leadership and said he hopes the administration keeps him at the center of its crackdown on illegal immigration.

“His presence on the front lines was a huge morale booster for the Border Patrol, which is obviously under heavy scrutiny,” Sortor said. “Him being there and risking his life beside them every day was sort of like fuel for them … He was becoming a figurehead for the mass deportation effort, somebody who was hell-bent on fulfilling what he believed was a mandate from the 2024 election.”

Days before Trump took office, Bovino oversaw a Border Patrol raid in Kern County, at the southern end of California’s Central Valley, some 250 miles from the border. Although the agency described the operation as targeted, Border Patrol agents had no knowledge of the criminal or immigration history for 77 of the 78 people arrested, according to CalMatters, a nonprofit news organization.

The American Civil Liberties Union alleged in a lawsuit that agents were conducting arrests indiscriminately of people of color “who appeared to be farmworkers or day laborers, regardless of their actual immigration status.” A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction last spring barring Border Patrol agents from stopping people in that region without reasonable suspicion that they were violating U.S. immigration law.

“Looking back on last year, the operation looks like an audition for Greg Bovino, and he got the part,” said Bree Bernwanger, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. “That raid was a precursor to the policies and practices that DHS would adopt writ large across the country. … We’ve seen them ignoring proof of immigration status and an utter disregard for the laws on the books that restrict immigration arrests without a warrant.”

Bovino remained little known nationally until June, when Border Patrol agents began making arrests in Los Angeles. After agents descended on a park in an immigrant-rich neighborhood on horseback and in military vehicles, Bovino told Fox News, “Better get used to us now, because this is going to be normal very soon.”

Several weeks later, in Chicago, Bovino’s aggressive tactics became more visible, as federal agents deployed tear gas and protesters clashed with law enforcement outside an ICE processing facility west of downtown. The nonprofit Chicago Headline Club filed a lawsuit against administration officials, alleging that the use of rubber bullets and tear gas against reporters and protesters violated their First Amendment rights.

Bovino, who was among multiple defendants in the lawsuit, claimed in a deposition that the agents’ conduct was “more than exemplary.” But U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis concluded that Bovino’s testimony was “not credible” and wrote in a court opinion that Bovino admitted “he lied multiple times” about the events that led up to his throwing a tear-gas canister toward a crowd. Bovino and DHS said that a rock hit him in the head before he threw the canister, and he said that he was “mistaken” in his deposition.

“I see little reason for the use of force that the federal agents are currently using,” Ellis said when she issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting immigration officers from using tear gas and pepper spray on those who do not pose a threat. “I would find the use of force shocks the conscience.”

From Chicago, Bovino continued on to shorter-term operations in New Orleans and Charlotte. Then came his posting to Minneapolis, which has turned out to be an inflection point for his career and, perhaps, for the administration’s immigration crackdown in urban areas.

On the morning of Jan. 7, an ICE officer, Jonathan Ross, shot and killed 37-year-old Good while she drove her SUV near her home in Minneapolis. A Washington Post analysis of video footage found Good’s car did move toward Ross but that he was able to move out of the way and fire at least two of three shots from the side of the vehicle as it veered past him.

Bovino, however, did not hesitate to condemn Good’s actions and praise the shooter, saying, “Hats off to that ICE agent” in a Fox News interview.

Seventeen days later, Bovino would once again defend the use of fatal force as the news broke that Pretti had been shot and killed in an encounter with federal immigration personnel.

At a news conference just hours after Pretti’s death, Bovino claimed that agents tried to disarm Pretti, but he “violently resisted.” An agent fired “defensive shots,” he said.

“This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” Bovino added.

Analysis of videos of the scene by several media organizations does not support Bovino’s claims. Federal immigration personnel had already secured Pretti’s handgun by the time they fatally shot him, according to a Post analysis of videos that captured the incident from several angles. As many as eight officers and agents were attempting to detain the 37-year-old ICU nurse, videos show. Federal officials now say that a Border Patrol agent and a CBP officer both shot Pretti, and they no longer claim that he had menaced law enforcement with his gun.

By Sunday, some Republican members of Congress had begun raising concerns about the shooting and pressing for an independent investigation. And by the following day, both Trump and White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt signaled a change, saying that Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, would be taking over the operation in Minneapolis.

“Mr. Bovino is a wonderful man, and he is a great professional,” Leavitt said. “He is going to very much continue to lead [Customs and Border Protection] throughout and across the country. Mr. Homan will be the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis.”

The news drew praise from Bovino’s critics.

“This move by the administration is a political recognition that the violence we’re seeing across our communities, from Minneapolis to cities nationwide, is deeply unpopular, unacceptable, and politically toxic,” said Todd Schulte, president of the immigration advocacy group FWD.us.

Bovino allies like Sortor registered their disappointment. “Bovino put his life on the line EVERY SINGLE DAY pushing for mass deportations across the country, going head to head with leftists and reminding THEM who’s boss,” he said on X: “DO NOT COWER TO THE DEMOCRATS, PRESIDENT TRUMP! BACK BOVINO!”

Bovino’s typically busy social media feed has been quiet since then. His most recent post on X came Monday morning before news of his departure spread. “Finding and arresting criminal illegal aliens,” he wrote, “this is why we are deployed across the country.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other immigration enforcement agencies would keep operating even if broad swaths of the federal government close this weekend.

Lawmakers face a Friday deadline for a partial government shutdown, 80 days after they reopened federal agencies after the longest shutdown ever in November. Congress has approved half of its annual spending bills since then and was poised to approve the other the bills late last week in one combined measure.

But the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by immigration authorities on Saturday — just weeks after an ICE officer killed Renée Good in the same city — outraged congressional Democrats, who say they’ll block the spending bill unless it includes more oversight of ICE. Republicans so far have rebuffed that demand, setting up a likely partial shutdown that would close agencies whose funding hasn’t been enacted.

ICE largely doesn’t need the spending bill to pass, however, even though its operations are at the heart of the standoff. That’s because the massive tax and immigration policy law the GOP passed last summer at President Donald Trump’s urging included $75 billion for the enforcement agency over the next four years.

The one-time bonus was nearly eight times as much as the agency received in 2020, its highest-funded year to date, and the largest investment in immigration enforcement since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. Including the ICE funds, DHS overall received $170 billion for immigration enforcement in the GOP law, the $3.4 trillion One Big Beautiful Bill.

The law put $45 billion toward immigration detention facilities and nearly $30 billion for hiring and training ICE agents. It also included $3.5 billion for Justice Department grants to reimburse local law enforcement agencies that help with immigration operations; $6.2 billion for Customs and Border Protection personnel hiring and bonuses; and $6.2. billion for border security technology and screening. Last summer, the influx landed right as ICE appeared close to burning through its annual appropriations.

It’s not clear how much of the money the agency has already spent, said Jennifer Ibáñez Whitlock, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center.

“It’s our best guess … that they still have significant amounts of that $170 billion to spend,” she said. “DHS doesn’t need any more money through the regular appropriation process because they received such a significant windfall under the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Senate Democrats are “blocking vital DHS funding that keeps our country secure and its people safe,” including Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and Border Patrol.

“This funding supports national security and critical national emergency operations, including FEMA responses to a historic snowstorm that is affecting 250 million Americans. Washington may stall, but the safety of the American people will not wait,” she said.

Republican leaders have rejected calls to separate this year’s Homeland Security spending from the measure to fund the rest of the government, but Senate Appropriations chair Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee chair Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R., Ala.) say they’re exploring options that could satisfy both sides.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) said on the Senate floor Tuesday that “productive talks are ongoing” and encouraged Democrats to remain engaged to find a solution to avoid a “needless shutdown.”

The extra money from last summer means Trump would have even more leeway than usual to keep his priorities going in a partial shutdown.

Presidents generally have broad discretion over which agencies should close and which should stay open with unpaid workers during shutdowns. Traditionally, the White House budget office has preserved functions crucial to national security, public safety, and protecting government property, even if the agencies responsible for those activities aren’t funded.

But outside funding streams — from other legislation or fees collected from government activities — give administrations room to move money around to their most favored agencies, even outside the bounds of spending laws.

Other federal functions without new appropriations would grind to a halt, and Trump and White House budget director Russell Vought leveraged the 2025 shutdown to marginalize agencies they felt mostly served Democratic-controlled constituencies.

In a potential shutdown this weekend, the IRS would shutter just days into tax season. Money for housing assistance programs would be at risk in the aftermath of a winter storm that sent temperatures plummeting to historic lows. Government-backed scientific research would halt overnight.

“The Trump administration knows that if there isn’t an appropriations bill, they can still do a lot of things. Many of the chains come off of them,” said Richard Stern, who studies the federal budget at Advancing American Freedom, a conservative think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. “They showed in the last shutdown that they’ll use full executive authority if Congress won’t do its job, and in that sense, they called the Democrats’ bluff. This time, the precise thing Democrats are fighting over is the thing Trump already has permanent funding for.”

The prolonged government closure in November — forced by disagreements over extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired last year — concluded with an agreement to approve three of 12 appropriations bills through September and set a deadline of Jan. 30 for the remaining bills.

Three more passed earlier this month, leaving six of the largest and most controversial funding bills to be negotiated between Republicans and Democrats. That bipartisan agreement was announced last week and initially appeared on track to pass.

But the Trump administration also flooded Minneapolis with federal immigration officials as part of Operation Metro Surge, which it called the largest enforcement operation in the agency’s history. Democrats began raising concerns with agents’ aggressive actions against U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants with no criminal history.

Top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees at first backed the funding agreement they helped negotiate, which would send $64.4 billion to Homeland Security, including $10 billion for ICE — similar to its existing funding levels.

They touted the changes they secured in the bill — including a decrease in detention beds, lowered funding for Border Patrol and for ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, and money for body cameras — and argued that denying funding for Homeland Security would also affect FEMA, the TSA and the Coast Guard. The measure did not include other changes Democrats pushed for, including prohibitions on ICE agents shooting at moving vehicles or detaining U.S. citizens.

Last week, top Democrats also noted that the 2025 GOP law meant ICE could continue to operate in a shutdown. The bill narrowly passed the House, primarily along party lines.

After federal officers shot and killed Pretti on Saturday, though, Democratic outrage boiled over. In the Senate — where at least seven Democrats would have to vote with Republicans to overcome a filibuster — the party’s leaders pledged to block the Homeland Security funding bill until Republicans agree to new accountability measures for ICE.

Now Democrats want Republicans to strip the Homeland Security funding bill from the rest of the package, which has wider bipartisan support. They acknowledge that it would do little to shut down ICE’s operations, but argue it’s necessary to force changes.

“Americans must be eyes wide open that blocking the DHS funding bill will not shut down ICE. ICE is now sitting on a massive slush fund it can tap, whether or not we pass a funding bill,” Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.), the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “But we all saw another American shot and killed in broad daylight. There must be accountability, and we must keep pushing Republicans to work with us to rein in DHS.”