Greg Bovino once had the title Border Patrol “commander at large,” but as of Tuesday, he’s been kicked to commander of the curb.
Perhaps the most feared immigration agent in Chicago and other cities was declawed by his boss, the President of the United States.
With the scrappy border chief now off the front lines, questions remain about what was in the Bovino playbook that terrified entire cities and resulted in thousands of immigration arrests and accusations that he frequently torched the U.S. Constitution.
“My name is Gregory Bovino…” the career Border Protection official states during a recent deposition in a Chicago civil rights lawsuit.
The lawsuit is a clear window to what made defrocked commander-at-large Bovino tick, what ticked him off, and what may have eventually caused his demise as U.S. Immigration’s most visible and volatile public face.
When the skirmish lines were drawn in Chicago and the suburbs last fall, Bovino became a paramilitary-like leader of Operation Midway Blitz and a TV fixture as the hard-strutting field general in command of several hundred Border Protection and ICE agents known for “hammering” protesters with arrest when they get out of line.
“When violence is threatened, that’s a case-by-case situation,” said Bovino in the deposition, one of three videos obtained and reviewed by the NBC Chicago Investigates. “Based on the context and what’s happening in this situation, again each situation is based on its own merits, based on what the officer sees and that type of thing. But threatening a law enforcement officer is illegal.”
Prior to joining U.S. Border Protection, Bovino’s criminal justice career began with a small-town police force in Boone, North Carolina.
He was a part time reserve officer for 3 years and a land surveyor in Boone before that. He learned border protection on the job after becoming a federal agent in 1996.
“I’m drawing from things that I see every day on the streets or that my agents see every day on the streets,” Bovino said. And then he listed the public infractions: “Removing masks, kicking agents, grabbing agents groins, assisting and abetting prisoners from escaping, shooting fireworks, knifing and slashing tires with weapons, throwing rocks through windows of vehicles to hurt agents and/or detainees. It’s the whole myriad of violent actions that I see against law enforcement officers conducting a lawful law enforcement mission.”
Bovino’s deposition was in a case that challenged immigration control tactics against protesters, news media crews and arrestees.
“I see this type of violence towards law enforcement officers, not just Border Patrol agents, but all law enforcement officers on a daily basis,” he said. “That does definitely concern me…all the while that we are protecting someone’s First Amendment rights.”
Last weekend a federal agent under Bovino’s command shot and killed protest observer and registered nurse Alex Pretti.
In short order, the commander at large announced Pretti had intended to massacre federal agents. Such a statement-without evidence-seems to have prompted Bovino’s reassignment back to the Southern California border position he came from.
Bovino turns 56 years old in March and has to retire from Border Patrol at 57. His personal playbook includes returning to North Carolina where he plans to harvest apples.
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