As the commander-at-large of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Gregory Bovino has served as a public face of an immigration crackdown whose agents’ identities are often concealed behind masks. And now, with backlash mounting over immigration officers’ aggressive enforcement tactics following two fatal shootings in Minneapolis, he has become a visible emblem of the controversy—and the Trump Administration’s efforts to quell it.
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Bovino has been on the ground overseeing thousands of detentions and deportation in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and—most recently—Minneapolis, where the killings of two residents by federal agents within less than three weeks have led to mass protests across the state and criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.
The CBP commander has been documented leading large patrols of federal agents and throwing tear gas canisters at protesters. He is active on social media, often clashing with Democrats and other critics. And as federal immigration agents have faced growing scrutiny, he has defended their actions in press conferences and television interviews.
Following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot in her car by an ICE officer while attempting to leave a protest in Minneapolis on earlier this month, Bovino said at a press conference that federal agents’’ actions in the Administration’s immigration crackdown were “legal, ethical, and moral,” without directly referencing Good’s killing.
And in the wake of the shooting of 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents over the weekend, Bovino claimed that Pretti, who was in possession of a licensed fire arm, “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Multiple videos of the incident, however, show that Pretti was holding a cell phone before and during the confrontation with federal officers, and cannot be seen drawing or reaching for his weapon before he was pepper-sprayed, pinned down, and shot.
“The victims are the Border Patrol agents. The suspect put himself in that situation,” Bovino told CNN on Sunday, a day after Pretti’s shooting.
Read more: On Thin ICE in Minneapolis: How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Sparked a Crisis of Trust
Amid outcry over Pretti’s shooting, Bovino, along with several other agents, was expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, sources familiar with the matter told multiple outlets. The White House told TIME in a statement that Tom Homan, the White House border czar and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director who President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he was sending to Minneapolis, will take over managing enforcement operations in the area.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said on Monday that Bovino has not been relieved of his duties and called him a “key part” of Trump’s team, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing that he would remain the head of CBP. But The Atlantic reported, citing a DHS official and two people familiar, that Bovino has been ousted from his position as CBP commander-at-large. He is set to return to his prior role in El Centro, California, where he served as the agency’s chief patrol agent for the sector, and is expected to soon retire, according to the outlet.
Bovino’s removal from Minneapolis—and, reportedly, his job—mark a notable shake-up in the leadership of Trump’s crackdown. Alongside the President’s softened tone toward Minnesota and Minneapolis leaders, they also seem to signal a shift in the Administration’s strategy as it confronts bipartisan backlash on immigration: a move away from its initial, aggressive defenses of agents’ tactics and toward something more conciliatory.
Here’s what you should know about Bovino, the role he has played in Trump’s Administration thus far, and the controversy he has garnered in recent days and weeks.
A central figure in Trump’s immigration crackdown
Bovino was born in San Bernardino, California in 1970 and grew up in North Carolina. He was inspired to join CBP after watching the 1982 film “The Border,” according to his sister Natalie, who spoke with the the Times of London.
Bovino joined the agency in 1996 and was initially assigned to El Paso, Texas. In the thirty-year career that has followed, he has served as an assistant chief in the agency’s Yuma, Arizona, sector and chief in its New Orleans and El Centro sectors.
Bovino was briefly relieved of his command in El Centro in 2023 under the Biden Administration after he testified critically about conditions at the border. He was also criticized for social media posts that were deemed inappropriate and for posing with an assault rifle in a profile picture.
Under the second Trump Administration, he became a prominent figure in immigration enforcement operations around the country. In June, he was named a key tactical commander of the Administration’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, where he became a recognizable face of the President’s mass deportation campaign. In L.A., Bovino oversaw more than 5,000 arrests in an operation that sparked widespread protests in the city and beyond over the summer.
In September, Bovino went on to lead Operation Midway Blitz, an ICE operation in Chicago that led to more than 3,000 arrests in the city and its suburbs and again prompted demonstrations against the Administration’s immigration agenda.
He has since also led operations in Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis as the Administration has ramped up enforcement in the cities.
Bovino has repeatedly used the phrase “turn and burn” on social media and in interviews to describe his agents’ rapid and aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.
“We will arrest and deport all illegal aliens. Turn and burn time,” Bovino wrote in one recent post.
He has also referred to his squadrons of agents as the “Mean Green Team,” in reference to the color of CBP uniforms.
“The #MeanGreen is patrolling Minneapolis through the cold, through the snow, and through it all arresting illegal aliens until the mission is accomplished. We’re here and we’re making the city safe,” he posted on X on Friday.
Video has captured Bovino himself throwing what appeared to be canisters of tear gas at protestors in both Chicago and Minneapolis.
The CBP commander and his agents were rebuked over the tactics they deployed during the Chicago operation by a federal judge in the city, who said she saw “little reason for the use of force that the federal agents are currently using” and found that officials’ accounts of clashes with protestors contradicted video evidence. In one instance, Judge Sara Ellis noted that after Bovino and DHS said he had been hit in the head with a rock before deploying tear gas against protestors, he admitted in a deposition “that he lied” and had been hit with a rock only after deploying the gas.
“While Defendants may argue that the Court identifies only minor inconsistencies, every minor inconsistency adds up, and at some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that Defendants represent,” Ellis wrote in a sharply critical ruling.
Many local and state leaders have also condemned the Bovino and federal immigration agents’ actions, which have included smashing windows, using tear gas, shooting rubber pellets, and arresting U.S. citizens. But Bovino has repeatedly justified the tactics of federal immigration officers.
“When someone steps in the way, that may not work out well for them, and if we need to effect the arrest of a U.S. citizen, or anyone else, then we’ll do that,” Bovino said in a CNN interview in October during the agency’s crackdown on Chicago.
Recent backlash
Amid a broader wave of backlash against Trump’s immigration crackdown, Bovino has faced public controversy and clashes.
Among them: his clothing. As the situation in Minneapolis escalated, a long olive green overcoat Bovino has been pictured wearing drew comparisons to Nazi uniforms.
“Greg Bovino dressed up as if he literally went on eBay and purchased SS garb. Greg Bovino, secret police, private army, masked men, people disappearing quite literally, no due process,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said.
Multiple German media outlets, including Der Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung, have also said the coat resembles the look of a Nazi officer.
In response to the comparisons, Bovino has said he has owned the coat for over 25 years and got it from CBP.
Bovino has also publicly sparred with politicians who have called him out on social media amid heightened scrutiny over the Minneapolis operation.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, for example, said that the “credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake” and called for a joint federal and state investigation.
Bovino responded: “The same state that refuses to work with ICE is now going to ‘investigate’? How about investigating a certain mayor who told cops to fight ICE in the streets. You don’t seem concerned about that – how come, senator?”
In another back-and-forth, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona told his followers to “believe what you see,” adding that Pretti was trying to help a woman who had been pushed by a federal agent before he was tackled and killed by immigration officers. “It’s time for them to get the hell out of MN,” Kelly said.
“You were there? Typical arm chair quarterback,” Bovino replied.
The post What to Know About Greg Bovino, Border Patrol’s Controversial Commander, as He Departs Minneapolis Amid Backlash appeared first on TIME.
