Ex-Border Chief Calls Minneapolis Withdrawal A Surrender

Greg Bovino, the former border patrol chief who led the federal deportation push in Minneapolis, said the Trump administration's later pullback of hundreds of agents amounted to a surrender. He made the comment in an interview with the BBC. Bovino also said he was not responding to a lawsuit filed this month by the family of Renee Good, a US citizen shot dead during the operation in January.

Bovino, 56, was removed from his post shortly after Good and Alex Pretti, both US citizens, were killed. Video of both shootings circulated widely, and the killings drew bipartisan criticism and protests across Minneapolis. President Donald Trump said afterward he was going to de-escalate a little bit. About 700 immigration agents subsequently left the state, and Tom Homan, the White House border tsar, took over the operation.

Good's family filed two civil suits earlier this month, alleging wrongful death and a conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of protesters. One of the cases names Bovino and Jonathan Ross, the agent who shot Good, citing their respective individual roles in the operation that led to her death. The filing argues the operation created an unprecedented environment for state-sponsored violence. A White House spokeswoman has previously called the lawsuits baseless.

Speaking in Detroit, where he was campaigning for tougher immigration enforcement, Bovino said the administration threw the towel in and that deportations had reached a virtual standstill. He said he regretted not going harder in Minnesota and arresting even more illegal aliens. He described his agents as the real victims of what he called the most violence any law enforcement mission had faced in US history. He also said he was not responding to the suit brought by Good's family, adding that people do lawsuits all the time.

Asked by the BBC whether video evidence undermined his position that Good and Pretti intended to harm agents, Bovino said the evidence showed violence was perpetrated against agents of the US government. He added that people need to follow the law and that there are consequences if they do not. Trump initially said Good violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer. Weeks later he called her death a tragedy and said agents were sometimes going to make a mistake.

Good's lawyers said Bovino was spewing propaganda and could not be judge, jury and executioner. They said their legal team looks forward to the depositions of Bovino and all of the defendants in the case. Bovino said he did not know why he was removed, saying the administration would have to answer that and that he had not received a final word. Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary during the operation, was fired by Trump in March. Bovino has since retired from the border patrol.

Bovino has called for total spectrum immigration enforcement backed by the military and has claimed without evidence that 100 million people are in the US illegally. A White House spokesperson said Trump had delivered the largest reduction in illegal immigration in modern history and that more than 3 million illegal aliens had left the country under his policies. Bovino also floated exploring a presidential run in 2028.

He recently addressed a rally in Michigan held by activists who called for the deportation of Abdul El-Sayed, a US-born citizen and Democratic Senate candidate. El-Sayed would be the first Muslim US senator if he beats Republican Mike Rogers.