High-profile Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino went nose-to-nose Wednesday with the progressive mayor of the Chicago suburb of Evanston after federal authorities detained at least ten people suspected of being in the US illegally.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss confronted Bovino in front of journalists and pro-immigrant activist after agents arrested a man at a gas station in the city, which is home to Northwestern University.
“The abuse has not been acceptable. The racism has not been acceptable. The violence has not been acceptable,” said Biss, a former Illinois gubernatorial candidate who is running for Congress in a competitive Democratic primary next year.
“Yeah, that’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re in your community, to hear what you need us to do when we are dealing with a violent situation or something like this, where there should be no violence committed by those who shouldn’t be here in your community,” Bovino responded, according to video of the conversation shot by Fox 32 political editor Paris Schutz.
“I’m unaware of that happening,” Biss responded, prompting Bovino to fire back: “Well, that’s probably the problem. Maybe you should get aware.”
Biss later ripped Bovino to the Chicago Sun-Times as a “condescending, sarcastic liar” and claimed his agents’ operation was “all a show.”
“He’s saying for the TV cameras, for right-wing podcasters, for national media, that he’s trying to keep us safe,” the mayor added. “And what he’s really doing is trying to create a spectacle while terrorizing our neighbors and abducting people.”
Bovino had been a near-constant presence in Chicagoland last month during the early stages of Operation Midway Blitz, before moving on to sweeps in Charlotte, NC and New Orleans, La.
“We never left,” Bovino told the Sun-Times Wednesday. “We’ve had several hundred [agents] here continually.”
Hours after the confrontation with Biss, Bovino posted that his agents had arrested 16 purported illegal immigrants at O’Hare Airport who had been working as rideshare drivers.
“If you’re in this country illegally, you don’t get to blend into the ‘gig economy’ and bypass our immigration laws,” he wrote on X. “We’re the best Uber driver, and we’ll get them home again!”
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