Gregory Bovino, the ‘tough guy’ of Trump’s immigration offensive

When Donald Trump won the presidency just over a year ago, Gregory Bovino was ready to seize the opportunity. From his post as chief of the Border Patrol in El Centro, which encompasses the Imperial Valley of southeastern California, he had worked hard to curry favor with the Republican. Two weeks before Trump’s inauguration, the official sent dozens of agents hundreds of miles north to Kern County in the Central Valley to conduct arrests at gas stations and along the highway, terrorizing the migrant community in the agricultural heartland of the nation’s most populous state. Bovino announced at the time that the operation was intended to arrest criminals, but of the 78 people detained, only one had a criminal record.

The stage was set, and the image of a ruthless agent against undocumented immigrants that he sought to project paid off. After nearly three decades with the Border Patrol, Bovino has become the uniformed face of Trump’s immigration offensive. Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem refers to him as the general commander of the Border Patrol (CBP). He has led the Trump administration’s most aggressive operations against migrants and has overseen the deployment of federal forces in Democratic-leaning cities, first in Los Angeles and then in Chicago.

The brutality with which these agents, encouraged by their superior, have carried out their operations and reacted to citizen protests against immigration raids in Chicago — from using tear gas to firing rubber bullets at peaceful demonstrators — has reached the courts. Federal Judge Sara Ellis of the Northern District of Illinois had ordered Tuesday that the official appear before her court every day at 5:45 p.m. to report on the arrests made by CBP that day, as well as any incidents that occurred, to ensure that the agents are complying with the law and remaining within constitutional limits. On Wednesday, however, an appeals court suspended the order.

The hearings were scheduled to continue until November 5 as part of a lawsuit filed by media outlets and protesters alleging that agents used excessive force during Operation Midway Blitz, launched in early September to detain migrants in Chicago. By mid-October, the number of detentions was around 1,500 for the Illinois office, which also covers five neighboring states. This is a very low number, considering the federal government’s reported goal of 3,000 migrant detentions per day.

However, Bovino’s role in encouraging the use of violence against migrants and protesters was captured in a video in which he is seen throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd, despite a judge having previously prohibited its use to quell protests. While his subordinates covered their faces with masks, he chose not to, thus reinforcing his image as a tough guy fighting crime.

“I suspect that now that he knows where we are and understands what I expect, we won’t see much use of tear gas next week,” Ellis said at Tuesday’s hearing. The judge has also demanded that Bovino produce all reports related to his officers’ actions since September 2. This has been left in limbo following the latest appeals court order.

This isn’t the first time Bovino has faced legal trouble. In 2022, while serving as head of CBP in New Orleans, two African American employees filed a lawsuit against him alleging discrimination. Both were finalists for the second-highest ranking position in that sector, but Bovino canceled the vacancy and instead hired a close, white friend. The judge rejected the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) request to dismiss the lawsuit, finding an email from the hired friend that compared Bovino to a Confederate general and the New Orleans office to a unit of Black Union soldiers. The judge found evidence of racial bias in the hiring, but the DHS reached an out-of-court settlement.

Bovino is a North Carolina native and has worked for the Border Patrol for 29 years. Trump promoted him after asking him to lead the anti-immigration operation in Los Angeles this summer, which resulted in thousands of arrests. During those months, agents smashed car windows, broke down a house door, and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback, frightening residents.

When Nick Miroff, a journalist for The Atlantic, asked the Department of Homeland Security why Bovino had risen from his office in El Centro to his position as head of operations in California, the answer he got came from DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin: “Because he’s a badass,” she said.

Bovino has cultivated that image. He is the only Border Patrol chief shown armed in his X profile picture, where he appears wearing a bulletproof vest and holding an M4 rifle with a telescopic sight. On the DHS X profile, that same photo has been used to create a poster that mimics an action movie, in which the crime-fighting league consists of Trump, Noem, Bovino, and the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd Lyons.

Fondness for propaganda

Bovino’s penchant for propaganda is nothing new. In September 2020, shortly after taking the helm at El Centro, his social media team posted a fictional video depicting a migrant sneaking into the United States and murdering the first person he encounters. The video had to be taken down due to the controversy it sparked.

Bovino also wanted to change CBP’s use of videos to show the human side of its agents, replacing them with a falsely glamorous, Hollywood-style image of tough, ruthless figures. To achieve this, he employed tricks typical of vigilante series. These videos, filmed in slow motion, show Border Patrol agents, armed and striking poses meant to convey determination, bravery, and ruthlessness in their pursuit of migrants, all set to a hard rock soundtrack.

But not all of Bovino’s audiovisual propaganda revolves around characters from police dramas. His videos also include forays into comedy, such as the one that emulates the classic movie Home Alone to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from his office.

Another video suggests that the Border Patrol is carrying out a holy mission. Agents traveling in helicopters and speedboats are displayed while the song God’s Gonna Cut You Down plays over the images. The group Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, which performed the song, released a statement saying: “It’s obvious that you don’t respect Copyright Law and Artist Rights any more than you respect Habeas Corpus and Due Process rights, not to mention the separation of Church and State per the U.S. Constitution.” The video was taken down.

Everything suggests that Bovino’s role in the government’s anti-immigration campaign will become more prominent with the administration’s new strategy of replacing ICE officials with Border Patrol agents. His aggressive methods are more to Trump’s liking, the Republican having expressed frustration that the goal of deporting one million migrants a year is not being met.

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