Gregory Bovino, the former US Border Patrol commander-at-large, has defended his record in a retirement interview with the New York Times, stating he wished he had caught more illegal aliens. His retirement at the end of March was not entirely voluntary, following a demotion by President Donald Trump after federal agents fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis in January.
Bovino led the Trump administration's Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, and was the public face of sweeps in Democratic-led cities. He referred to undocumented immigrants as 'scum', 'trash' and 'filth' in legal documents, and used terms like 'walking zombies' for migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic. He also referred to former President Barack Obama by his middle name, Hussein.
In the interview, Bovino said he felt hampered by bureaucrats who limited his 'turn and burn' tactics, and expressed a desire for 'total border domination'. He praised Trump, calling him 'the Trumpster', and said his plan, cut short by the White House, was to enable the deportation of 100 million people.
Bovino used social media to broadcast his message, often causing reprimands, and organised teams to approach people at petrol stations and transit hubs to ask about immigration status, a tactic he called 'consensual encounters'. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit over the raids, with a judicial ruling noting agents often did not know the criminal or immigration history of those arrested.
