Two sources tell CBS News that Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino will retire from federal service at the end of March. Bovino was deployed to several cities to oversee the Trump administration’s sweeping illegal immigration crackdown and faced significant controversy during his tenure. CBS News immigration correspondent Camilo Montoya-Galvez explains.
Gregory Bovino, one of the most recognized public faces of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, will be retiring from government service. The longtime Border Patrol official is expected to retire at the end of March, after serving at the agency since the 1990s.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Bovino has not yet submitted any retirement paperwork.
Bovino gained national attention after he was deployed by the Trump administration to major American cities to oversee often-controversial immigration enforcement operations. In every city where he oversaw operations — from Los Angeles and Chicago to Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis — the tactics and actions of those agents were strongly denounced by local residents and leaders as heavy-handed and indiscriminate. Others saw him as a no-nonsense enforcer of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
But after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Bovino was relieved of his command and sent back to his day job as a sector chief in California. In a statement, Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said Bovino “would be held accountable and responsible for the damage he’s done to our nation.” The governor added, “We won’t forget and neither should you.”
REPORTER: Camilo Montoya-Galvez.