Bovino was face of Trump’s immigration raids. Now his future is in question

For months, Gregory Bovino has been the public face of President Trump’s sweeping immigration raids on U.S. cities.

When the dashing Border Patrol commander stormed into Los Angeles last summer on a mission to detain thousands of immigrants, he showed no remorse as agents smashed car windows, concealed their identities with masks, seized brown-skinned Angelenos off the streets and descended on horseback into MacArthur Park.

When a federal officer shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, Bovino’s response to Fox News’ Sean Hannity was, “Hats off to that ICE agent.”

On Saturday, when a Border Patrol agent shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old critical care nurse, Bovino once again defended murder. He said Pretti seemed like someone who “wanted to cause maximum damage and decimate law enforcement.”

But Bovino’s future remains in limbo as public anger grows against the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics. On Monday, Trump deployed border adviser Tom Homan to Minnesota, and Bovino was reportedly preparing to leave the region.

Now the question remains: Will Bovino’s departure really change Trump’s playbook?

Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., said Bovino’s departure, if true, could represent a pivotal moment in the enforcement of immigration in the country’s interior.

“I think it indicates that tensions have increased so significantly that fractures and divisions are starting to form within the Trump administration to figure out how this enforcement can be done more efficiently but also with more accountability,” Ruiz Soto said.

But other immigration experts question the importance of stepping aside Bovino.

“I think it’s a big mistake to think that a change in personnel in the field means a change in policy,” said Lucas Guttentag, a law professor at Stanford University who specializes in immigration. “Because the policy remains the same: To terrorize immigrant communities and intimidate peaceful protesters.”

Even if Bovino is removed or given a lesser role, Guttentag said, national immigration policy is still being shaped by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy secretary for policy and homeland security adviser who has embraced tough enforcement tactics.

“They are still threatening military intervention,” Guttentag said. “They still want to keep the National Guard on duty. All of these basic policies, as well as deporting people with legal status, sending people to third world countries without any due process, adopting detention rules that deprive people of hearings to make them eligible for release, all of that goes on.”

“Even switching from Bovino to Homan does not signal anything significant policy-wise,” he added.

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So far, the Department of Homeland Security has been tight-lipped about Bovino’s future and did not respond to questions from The Times this week.

But the Associated Press reported Monday that Bovino and some federal agents were expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday. The Atlantic, quoting DHS sources, reported He said Bovino has been generally demoted from his post as Border Patrol commander and will return to his old job in El Centro, California.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin disputed that Monday, saying: in x He said Bovino “was not relieved of his duties.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described him as a “wonderful person” and a “wonderful professional” who “will continue to lead Customs and Border Patrol across the country.”

Criticism and public protests against the administration’s actions have been growing since the launch of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota last month. Trump said he sent Homan to Minnesota “to ease some tensions.”

“Bovino is a very nice but pretty extraordinary guy,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” on Tuesday. “And in some cases that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good here.”

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Born in California and raised in North Carolina, the pugnacious 55-year-old Bovino’s muscular physique, green military coat and gel-spiked hair looked like something straight out of MAGA central casting.

Trump, who traveled to Los Angeles in June to command the Trump administration’s mass immigration crackdown, appeared to enjoy confrontation as protests broke out and troops were deployed across the city.
“All over the Los Angeles area, we’re going to turn and burn, to the next target, and the next, and the next, and the next, and we won’t stop,” Bovino told The Associated Press last summer. “We won’t stop until there are no more problems here.”

Bovino was defiant when faced with legal hurdles.

In August, an appeals court upheld a decision. temporary restraining order prevents its agents from targeting people in Southern and Central California based on race, language or occupation without reasonable suspicion that they are in the United States illegally.

Bovino responded by posting video For the first time in X, it showed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass telling reporters, “This experiment in the city of Los Angeles has failed,” and then grinning to herself. As a frenzied mix of drums and bass kicks in, the video fades to footage of federal agents jumping out of a van to chase people.

“What do you do when you encounter opposition to law and order?” cattle wrote. “Improvise, adapt and overcome!”

After leading agents in Los Angeles, Bovino returned to Chicago to serve as commander of Operation Midway Blitz. He then traveled to New Orleans and then to Minnesota to lead what officials called Homeland Security’s “largest immigration operation ever.”

The shooting deaths of Good and Pretti by federal agents this month sparked outrage and protests both in Minneapolis and across the country.

Ruiz Soto said discussions about Trump’s immigration policy are no longer just about immigrants.

“This is about constitutional rights and it’s about U.S. citizens,” Ruiz Soto said. “It’s now much more immersive for a wider audience. It’s much more visible now.”

After Border Patrol agents tackled Pretti to the ground and shot him, many Americans were outraged to hear that Bovino and other senior Trump administration officials had made false statements about the incident.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Pretti approached federal officers on the street with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him.

But according to videos taken at the scene, Pretti was holding a phone, not a gun, when he appeared in front of a federal agent pushing a woman to the ground. The agent pushed him and pepper sprayed him, and then multiple agents forced him to the ground. In the midst of the chaos, an agent seized a gun. Less than a second later, the first shot was fired.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed without evidence that Pretti committed “an act of domestic terrorism” and said her agency would lead the investigation into Pretti’s killing.

Federal authorities also denied Minnesota state investigators access to the shooting scene in south Minneapolis, leading local and state officials to accuse the Homeland Security agency of mishandling evidence.

In the days following the shooting, Democrats in Congress called for Noem’s impeachment.

“The country is disgusted by the actions of the Department of Homeland Security,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint speech Tuesday. expression. “Kristi Noem must be removed from office immediately, or we will begin impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives.”

Asked by reporters Tuesday whether Noem would resign, Trump said, “No.”

Ruiz Soto pulled Bovino aside and said the Trump administration appeared to be sending a bigger message.

“They’re going to try to restrict the Border Patrol’s authority, or at least the way they participate in operations, and now they’re going to come back,” he said. “Or at least try to emulate more of the previous ICE model.”

But Guttentag said that while the public sees the Trump administration taking a tactical step back, the problems go beyond Bovino’s leadership.

“So it’s not just about leadership, it’s about lack of training,” Guttentag said. he said. “This is the message we’re getting from the top, statements from the vice president and others that they have legal immunity. This is instructions to be as aggressive as possible, but also the lack of quality in the hiring and training process. All of this continues regardless of who the person is on the ground.”