In Their Words: How Gregory Bovino became a face of Trump’s mass deportations and ended his career
Mar 17, 2026, 1:19 PM | Updated: 1:24 pm
Gregory Bovino, who became a face of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics in large cities, confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday that he plans to retire from the Border Patrol in the coming weeks.
Bovino, 55, joined the Border Patrol in 1996 and steadily rose through the ranks. But he wasn’t well-known outside the agency until last June, when he became commander of the administration’s crackdown in Los Angeles, which resulted in thousands of arrests, most notably near Home Depots and at car washes. Agents smashed car windows, blew open a door to a house and patrolled the fabled MacArthur Park. on horseback.
Bovino, who often appeared in tactical gear, took his act to Chicago, patrolling down the Chicago River, in the Michigan Avenue tourist district and in neighborhoods across the city and suburbs. He led a helicopter raid at a large apartment building and used chemical agents to face demonstrators.
After short stops in Charlotte, North Carolina, and New Orleans, Bovino was a near-daily presence as Minnesota’s Twin Cities turned into a battleground between demonstrators and immigration authorities that led to the deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Bovino left Minnesota shortly after Pretti was killed on Jan. 24 and was replaced by White House border czar Tom Homan.
Bovino retires as chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro, California, sector, a position he held since 2020.
“We’re not going to hit one location. We’re going to hit as many as we can. All over — all over — the Los Angeles region, we’re going to turn and burn to that next target and the next and the next and the next, and we’re not going to stop. We’re not going to stop until there’s not a problem here.”
Bovino in an Aug. 25 interview with the AP describing his “turn and burn” approach to racking up immigration arrests.
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“What happens at the border, even 100 years ago, didn’t stay at the border, and it still doesn’t. That’s why we’re here in Los Angeles.”
Bovino, in AP interview, explaining the Border Patrol’s increasing presence away from the border.
“We use the least amount of force necessary to effect the arrest, we do that. If I had more CS gas, I would have deployed it.”
Bovino, in a Nov. 3 interview with the AP, on throwing a canister of gas at a crowd in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. The Department of Homeland Security said Bovino was hit with a rock. Bystanders rejected that claim and said agents deployed gas without warning. A federal judge later said Bovino lied about the incident.
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“My role is not to tell you that you can or cannot enforce validly passed laws by Congress. … My role is simply to see that in the enforcement of those laws, the agents are acting in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution.”
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordering Bovino on Oct. 28 to provide daily briefings on how his agents are enforcing the law in Chicago.
“This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Bovino at a Jan. 24 news conference on the fatal shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by federal authorities. His version of events was immediately called into question by eyewitness videos.
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“I don’t think it’s a pullback, it’s a little bit of a change. Everybody in this room that has a business, you know you make little changes. You know Bovino’s very good, but he’s a pretty out there kind of a guy, and in some cases, that’s good, maybe it wasn’t good here.”
President Donald Trump, on Bovino’s reassignment from Minnesota in a Jan. 27 interview with Fox News Channel.
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“She is the best Secretary I ever worked for, period. The others weren’t even close. Noem is the ultimate patriot.”
Bovino commenting March 5 on Trump firing Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security.
