Greg Bovino, the combative border official empowered by the Trump administration to run major immigration operations across the United States, plans to retire in the coming weeks, he told The New York Times on Monday.
Mr. Bovino had a decades-long career with the U.S. Border Patrol, running operations along portions of the southern border since he joined the agency in the 1990s.
He became a household name, however, as he oversaw sprawling operations within the country starting last summer in Los Angeles, then Chicago and New Orleans, and finally in Minnesota in January.
His brash style, including his regular social media commentary, earned him criticism from the left and praise from the right. The operations his team conducted spurred lawsuits and allegations of racial profiling. At one point, his team led an operation at a Chicago apartment complex in which agents rappelled from a helicopter. The scene was filmed and sent out on social media shortly after the arrests were made.
Mr. Bovino’s role running operations came to an end earlier this year after the shooting of Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis. Mr. Bovino alleged that Mr. Pretti seemed to want to “massacre” agents at the scene. Soon after, Border Patrol officials released an initial review of the encounter that did not back up those allegations. Mr. Bovino departed the region after the White House border czar, Tom Homan, arrived and took over the operation.
The Times reported this month that Mr. Bovino was under investigation by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection professional responsibility office over a report that he mocked a federal prosecutor’s Jewish faith. A spokeswoman from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, dismissed the original report as gossip.
A department representative has said the investigation was spurred by a letter from a member of Congress and was not confirmation of wrongdoing.
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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