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.
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…
