What’s going on with Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol “commander-at-large” who had been leading President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota?
Following the second shooting death of a Minneapolis citizen by federal immigration officers, Bovino was taken out of Minnesota and reassigned to his old Customs and Border Protection position as chief patrol agent in El Centro, California.
The Atlantic’s Nick Miroff reported earlier this week that Bovino is essentially losing his job as he is expected to retire soon. That remains to be seen, but this much is true: He has effectively been erased from a leadership role in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Not only was Bovino taken out of Minnesota (and replaced there by border czar Tom Homan), but he was barred by the administration from using his official social media accounts. At least for the time being.
And that’s a big deal, given the role social media played in some of the divisiveness we’ve seen in our country in recent weeks.
The New York Times’ Shawn McCreesh wrote, “The decision to bar Mr. Bovino from his account was made not by the White House but by his higher-ups at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to an official at the Department of Homeland Security. A different U.S. official insisted that Mr. Bovino would eventually regain access to his social media account, once he’s back at his previous post in California, overseeing part of the border there.”
McCreesh added, “It is one thing to be demoted. It is another thing entirely to lose your social media megaphone. In this administration, there may be no worse fate.”
It appears that the Trump administration is trying to do some damage control following the horrific shootings in Minneapolis, as well as the overall operations in Minnesota. It also appears that the administration is using Bovino as its fall guy — not that he didn’t play a large part in just how unsuccessful things have gone there.
The Washington Post’s Marianne LeVine, Beth Reinhard and Aaron Schaffer wrote, “Bovino’s rapid rise and fall reflects the arc of the Trump administration’s combative immigration enforcement tactics and the mounting public backlash it has generated.”
About Bovino, the Post wrote, “Dressed in his signature olive-green uniform and sporting a buzz cut, Bovino led masked agents into American cities like a military commander directing troops into battle. Bovino relished trading insults with critics on social media, posting action videos of his agents’ maneuvers and appearing on the front lines of tear-gas-laced clashes with protesters.”
Perhaps it's that social media combativeness that led the administration to attempt to lower the temperature by yanking his social media presence.
However, McCreesh wrote for the Times, “Even though it became clear that Mr. Bovino would be the one to take the fall, it was somehow surprising that he would be suspended from social media. There was really nothing about his behavior online that wasn’t perfectly in keeping with how his superiors behave online.”
That’s true. Just review the things posted by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem or Vice President JD Vance or Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
McCreesh wrote, “It’s hard to imagine what was off-kilter about the way Mr. Bovino was using social media.”
The real question, however, was asked by the Los Angeles Times’ Jenny Jarvie, who wrote, “Now, the question remains: will Bovino’s departure really change the Trump playbook? Ariel G. Ruiz Soto — a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank — said Bovino’s exit, if true, could represent a pivotal moment in immigration enforcement in the nation’s interior.”
Ruiz Soto said, “I think it signals that the tensions have risen so significantly that there’s beginning to be ruptures and fragments within the Trump administration to try to figure out how to do this enforcement more efficiently, but also with more accountability.”
Then again, Lucas Guttentag, a professor of law at Stanford University who specializes in immigration, told Jarvie, “I think it’s a grave mistake to think the change in the personnel on the ground constitutes a change in policy. Because the policy remains the same: to terrorize immigrant communities and intimidate peaceful protesters.”
And what is Trump saying? After Bovino was removed from Minnesota, Trump told Fox News’ Will Cain, “Bovino is 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.”
Trump is an avid TV watcher, and there’s reporting that suggests coverage of the events in Minneapolis, notably the shooting death of Alex Pretti, might be impacting Trump’s thinking.
The New York Times’ Tyler Pager, Katie Rogers, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz with “Nervous Allies and Fox News: How Trump Realized He Had a Big Problem in Minneapolis.”
They wrote, “Holed up in the White House over the weekend, with temperatures dropping and a major snowstorm on its way, Mr. Trump expressed concern about the killing to aides and allies. But his frustrations were more about the coverage of the events rather than the incident itself, according to people familiar with the dynamic.”
The Times added, “The president told people that the killing of Mr. Pretti and the protests were overshadowing his accomplishments on immigration and the border — two issues that he sees as his signature achievements, and which he returns to over and over when he feels under siege politically.”
NBC News’ Jonathan Allen, Gabe Gutierrez, Garrett Haake, Katherine Doyle and Monica Alba reported, “As he absorbed clips of the fatal confrontation, and the news reports surrounding it, Trump grew increasingly disturbed by what he saw, according to one of the senior administration officials.”
NBC News added, “If Trump wasn’t ready to change the tactics, he was starting to understand that he needed to change the optics.”
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told the Times, “Nobody understands TV better than him. I was among many that were telling him his instincts were right.”
The Times reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook even reached out to Trump, saying it was “time for de-escalation.”
By the way, be sure to read the NBC News story — “Inside the White House in the chaotic hours after Alex Pretti's shooting.” It’s full of behind-the-scenes details.
