Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent and CBP Operations Commander Gregory Bovino is set to retire at the end of March, bringing an end to a nearly 30-year career with the agency. Bovino is best known for leading U.S. Customs and Border Protection teams in the most sweeping mass-immigration enforcement operations in the agency’s history, according to DHS.
Chief Bovino spoke with Breitbart Texas on Sunday and announced he would be leaving the agency with a sense of immense pride, saying, “The greatest honor of my entire life was to work alongside Border Patrol agents on the border and in the interior of the United States in some of the most challenging conditions the agency has ever faced.” Bovino went on to add, “Watching these agents out there giving it their all in some of the most dangerous of environments we have ever faced was humbling.”
As the well-known face of President Trump’s interior immigration enforcement operations, Bovino led Border Patrol agents on deployments involving sweeping raids miles inland from the immediate border. The seasoned Border Patrol chief’s approach to conducting and directing operations in large metropolitan areas marked a sharp departure from the traditional roles of the Border Patrol.
Often facing off with politicians and city leaders in sanctuary jurisdictions who were unhappy with the presence of federal agents enforcing immigration law, Bovino routinely stood his ground, declaring operations would continue until the agency decided to “turn and burn” to another location.
Bovino led operations from the front lines in numerous enforcement sweeps and nighttime operations that resulted in thousands of illegal alien apprehensions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis. On many occasions, operations that netted gang members, criminal aliens, and those who accompanied them were met with violent protests resulting in assaults against Bovino’s agents reaching levels never seen before.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, Agents under Bovino’s command came under violent attack in Los Angeles that often involved activists hurling rocks and projectiles at agents. The attacks progressed to some using their vehicles as weapons against the agents. In one attack, an activist used a handgun to fire at Bovino’s agents who had rescued 14 children from marijuana cultivation sites in California in July 2025.
Bovino told Breitbart Texas at the time that the agitators, who were using their vehicles to impede or restrict the mobility of Border Patrol agents, appeared to be well-organized protesters who were ill-informed and misled about the dangers of breaking federal laws that prohibited such behavior.
The Los Angeles operations during the summer of 2025 would net the agency more than 5,000 illegal alien arrests. Under Bovino, the agents often deployed innovative methods and, on one occasion, saw Border Patrol agents conceal themselves within a Penske cargo truck to conduct immigration operations at an unofficial day labor location dubbed “Operation Trojan Horse.”
Interior immigration enforcement operations would later move to Chicago, where “Operation Midway Blitz” would lead to more than 3,000 illegal alien arrests over several months in northern Illinois, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Subsequent CBP operations were led by Bovino in New Orleans and Charlotte, North Carolina. The sweeping inland operations would culminate in Minneapolis under “Operation Metro Surge,” which ended in February 2026.
“Metro Surge” would later be described by DHS as the largest interior mobilization of agents for interior immigration law enforcement in the agency’s history. The surge wound down quickly in February 2026, with Trump Border Czar Tom Homan assuming command of the operation and announcing a swift drawdown. Homan’s entrance into the operational environment in Minneapolis came within weeks of two federal agent-involved shootings connected to the operation.
As reported by Breitbart, the first shooting occurred in early January 2026 when an activist suspected of trying to run over an ICE agent with her vehicle was shot and killed by an ICE agent after being struck by the vehicle driven by activist Renee Nicole Good. A second shooting occurred in late January when Border Patrol agents fired upon Alex Pretti, a protester who resisted agents’ attempts to subdue him. Pretti was carrying a concealed firearm at the time of the struggle, captured on video. Both incidents remain under investigation.
Raised in rural North Carolina’s Appalachian region, Bovino earned a bachelor’s degree in natural resource conservation from Western Carolina University and a master’s degree in public administration from Appalachian State University. Bovino holds a second master’s degree from the National War College in Washington, D.C.
Bovino joined the Border Patrol in 1996 in El Centro, California. His career would span nearly three decades and include assignments in multiple border sectors and assignments as a member of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC). He has served on foreign assignments in Egypt, Africa, and Honduras.
He has served as the Chief Patrol Agent of the New Orleans Sector and currently serves as Chief Patrol Agent of the El Centro Sector, where he began his career.
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.
Read the full article here
