Federal agents operating in the Twin Cities have been assaulted nearly two dozen times in less than a week, Border Patrol Operations Commander Gregory Bovino told Breitbart Texas, describing a rapid escalation of violence that includes shoving, punching, throwing objects, fireworks, and even an unknown chemical sprayed from a fire extinguisher.
In an exclusive interview on Monday, Chief Bovino said the number of physical assaults against Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is on the rise in Minneapolis. In just the last four days, agents have been assaulted nearly 25 times.
Bovino says the assaults, becoming more frequent, are dangerous acts that seem to be deliberate attempts to provoke agents into using force and to stop them from enforcing immigration laws altogether. Chief Bovino, a thirty-year veteran of the Border Patrol, told Breitbart Texas that some of the assaults have come dangerously close to eliciting a serious use-of-force response from his agents.
“One agitator used a metal fire extinguisher to spray an unknown substance on one of our agents,” the commander stated. “After examination, we believe the liquid may have been watered-down paint, but at the time, the agent had no idea whether the substance was a dangerous chemical like acid or another caustic fluid.”
The chief Border Patrol agent, currently on the ground with his agents in Minneapolis, says the agent responded to the situation with extreme professionalism and restraint and added, “The suspect was wearing metal ice spikes on his shoes for traction and thought he would escape after the assault — he was sadly mistaken.”
Bovino, himself, appeared to become the target of an assault as a woman resisted arrest and then grabbed and pushed the chief during a confrontation last week.
The increase in assaults comes after a shooting incident last week, where an ICE officer shot and killed a motorist who used her vehicle to block a roadway in Minneapolis in what appears to be an effort to impede the agents from carrying out an arrest. The officer, who had been previously injured after being dragged by another vehicle, fired his weapon after the woman failed to heed instructions to step out of the vehicle and instead drove her vehicle at the officer.
Bovino echoed the message of Trump administration officials who have promised that anyone attempting to harm federal agents engaged in law enforcement activities will be arrested and prosecuted. “We are not going to let our officers be attacked in an aggressive manner and sit idly by. In addition to the most important mission of enforcing Title 8 Immigration laws, we will also arrest those who attack and assault our agents. You will go to jail,” Bovino emphasized.
The seasoned border chief says the environment is challenging and places significant emphasis on communicating with frontline agents to ensure they stay alert when operating in the Twin Cities area. Bovino says the situation is alarming, adding, “We emphasize working in pairs or small groups and to always be aware of their surroundings. Safety is paramount; we have aggressive agitators that are not only assaulting our agents, but the agents are being doxed and followed constantly. Some liberal politicians are encouraging the dangerous behavior and are making the situation worse.”
Bovino told Breitbart Texas the agitators who are using their vehicles to impede or restrict the mobility of Border Patrol and ICE agents or are engaged in the physical assaults appear to be well-organized protesters who are ill-informed and misled about the dangers of breaking federal laws that prohibit such acts.
“Some of these folks are being trained by ‘fly by night attorneys’ or activist groups like Minnesota ICE Watch that appear to be using the protesters as cannon fodder, knowing that many will dangerously overstep legal boundaries to draw agents into a use of force situation,” Bovino says.
The chief added, “They don’t care about these people or what happens to them so long as it forwards their ideology.”
Also shocking to Bovino is the extreme effort the agitators put forth to shield criminal illegal aliens from arrest by ICE and Border Patrol agents within the city. “We are targeting illegal aliens with serious criminal records that include child sex offenses, rape, murder, and armed robberies that are moving about freely in Minneapolis because of sanctuary policies, and the agitators still work to prevent the arrests; it defies logic,” Bovino exclaimed.
The situation in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metroplex could be made much safer with the help of local and state law enforcement, according to Bovino. Despite the moral support from rank-and-file police officers on the ground, many who voice their opinions to the agents who are now under assault, Bovino says, the larger police departments in Minneapolis and Saint Paul have been prevented by their leadership from responding to requests for assistance from ICE and Border Patrol.
“We’re getting some help from the smaller departments around the Twin Cities, but if the main police departments would help, we would see the number of assaults on our agents go down or be eliminated quickly,” Bovino says.
The border chief and CBP commander on the ground says the highly trained state police officers in Minnesota are not assisting in keeping the public safe, as he has seen in other states. “In Louisiana, Colonel Hodges, who is the Superintendent of the state police, helped tremendously to keep the agitators at bay when the line between peaceful protest and impeding federal agents was crossed. His officers are highly trained and only one assault on a Border Patrol agent was recorded while we were there recently, here in Minneapolis, we have no such support,” Bovino told Breitbart Texas.
Bovino says one thing is for sure: “Our agents will not be deterred by the actions of a few agitators and activists. Most of the citizens here voice their support for us and our actions to make their community safer. Despite the misinformation from politicians who support open borders and high crime, we will keep at it. We’re not going anywhere.”
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X @RandyClarkBBTX.
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