The Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was blunt as he addressed the group of federal agents dressed in tactical gear: “Arrest as many people that touch you as you want to. Those are the general orders, all the way to the top.”
The directive from Mr. Bovino last June was captured on video, just as the agents he led were beginning a large-scale crackdown on immigrants in the Los Angeles area.
“It’s all about us now,” Mr. Bovino said. “It ain’t about them.”
The video was made public last year as part of a federal lawsuit over immigration enforcement in the Chicago area. It resurfaced online this week after Mr. Bovino was recalled from Minnesota, where he had been leading an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign that has led to repeated clashes with protesters.
Federal agents in Minneapolis this month shot and killed two people, prompting the Trump administration to remove Mr. Bovino from command of the operation.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the video.
In the clip, Mr. Bovino told agents to keep operations “professional, legal, ethical and moral.”
He also reminded them that they might be filmed while they are out. “You’re on camera,” Mr. Bovino said. “But other than that? It’s what we do.”
He also referred to the types of weapons that agents would receive. “Less lethals? We’re going to look at shipping tractor-trailer loads,” he said, adding an expletive.
On June 7, the day the video was taken, protests erupted across the Los Angeles area in response to the crackdown. Protests continued for days and later prompted President Trump to send National Guard troops to the city. They also led to a nightly curfew in downtown Los Angeles, where many protests had taken place.
Mr. Bovino was later tapped to lead immigration operations in Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., New Orleans and Minnesota . Some Border Patrol agents who were part of the crackdown in Los Angeles have also followed Mr. Bovino to other cities.
The orders from Mr. Bovino in Los Angeles appeared to have become part of the playbook that the Trump administration has used in other cities.
Many residents and elected officials in the targeted cities have objected to the administration’s immigration operations, complaining that immigration agents used excessive force during immigration stops and that they clashed with protesters and observers. In many instances, federal agents have deployed tear gas and chemical irritants in attempts to disperse protesters.
The suit against the federal government over immigration raids in the Chicago area — filed by protesters, religious leaders and members of the news media — claimed that federal agents used excessive force during their operations, including flashbang grenades, pepper balls and other so-called less lethal weapons.
At the end of the video, someone in the background asked Mr. Bovino, “Whose city is it, chief?”
Using an expletive, Mr. Bovino responded that it was their city.
Jesus Jiménez is a Times reporter covering Southern California.
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