An angry mayor confronted President Donald Trump’s Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, accusing his force of using “unacceptable” racism and violence.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, 48, got in the face of Bovino, 55—a Trump-aligned immigration hardliner who has been leading loud, camera-ready operations under the banner of his “Green Machine” team—as protesters whistled and shouted in the suburban Illinois street.
Video of the confrontation Wednesday morning—posted to X by Fox 32 Chicago reporter Paris Schutz—shows Biss telling Bovino that the “abuse” and “racism” have been “unacceptable” and that the “violence” has been “unacceptable.”
The specific details of the exchange were difficult to make out over the noise, but when Bovino was challenged about “unacceptable violence,” he could be heard shooting back, “Yeah, that’s why we’re here in your community,” saying the operation was a response to “violence committed by people who shouldn’t be here.”
According to NeighborhoodScout’s analysis of reported crime data, Evanston’s violent crime rate is 2 per 1,000 residents, or about a 1-in-601 chance of victimization, as of 2021. For comparison, the site lists Illinois’ violent crime rate at 3.10 per 1,000 residents. Using the FBI’s latest estimate, the U.S. violent crime rate in 2024 was 3.6 per 1,000 residents.
When Biss, a Democrat who was elected in 2021 and re-elected this year, answered that he was “unaware” of such immigrant-led violence happening in his city, Bovino retorted, “Well, that’s probably the problem. Maybe you should get aware.”
As the exchange ended, a bystander shouted, “Hey, Bovino, we don’t want you here, bro.”
The minute-long face-off unfolded after federal agents detained a man outside a gas station in Evanston and then moved on to other locations, including a Home Depot, where a crowd gathered in another standoff, according to Chicago news outlet WBEZ.
Soon afterward, Biss posted his own video message to X explaining why he had “stood face to face with Greg Bovino,” saying that “the violence is being perpetrated by federal agentfs” and urging residents to “stay alert” and to use rapid-response networks and support resources.
Bovino offered a sharply different version in a post on X, thanking Chicago and Evanston police for “assistance” and claiming they prevented “violent mobs” from assaulting officers during “Title 8 immigration duties.”
Biss has been sounding the alarm over violent immigration sweeps in Evanston, part of “Operation Midway Blitz” in Illinois, for weeks. In November, he was scathing about Border Patrol agents who he said “forced” a car crash, “beat up” bystanders, and lied about why a citizen was punched, calling it “lawlessness” and demanding, “Get the hell out of our city.”
His confrontation with Bovino came on the day Bovino re-emerged in the Chicago area, leading a roughly 200-agent convoy that drew accusations of intimidation and reckless driving “within minutes” of arriving back in the region, after stints in North Carolina and Louisiana.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security—which oversees Border Patrol—for comment.
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