Greg Bovino shouts at protesters in Minneapolis in mid-January.Image: keystone
After the fatal shooting of nurse Alex Pretti, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino gave a questionable interview. Now Trump is whistling him back.
01/27/2026, 02:5301/27/2026, 02:53
The controversial commander of the Border Patrol, Gregory Bovino, will soon leave Minneapolis, according to media reports. In addition to him, some of his border guards will also be withdrawn shortly, as the US broadcasters CNN and CBS News reported. They rely on sources familiar with the matter. According to CNN, the officers are expected to leave the city on Tuesday.
Bovino gave a remarkable interview on CNN on Sunday. In a 15-minute conversation with journalist Dana Bash, he defended the shooting of nurse Alex Pretti by ICE officers in Minneapolis. Although Bash repeatedly showed him the many images that exist of the incident, Bovino remained adamant in his claim that Pretti wanted to attack and kill the ICE agents.
“That was a really good job by our officers,” said Bovino in view of the images of the shooting that CNN presenter Dana Bash showed the commander of the US Border Patrol.
“They hunted down the suspect before he could impede and attack our officers in their work.”
The claim was clearly refuted by the images of the incident. Nevertheless, the martial ICE commander even went so far as to portray his officers as victims in the situation. However, he consistently referred to the shot Pretti, who was only filming with a cell phone camera, as a “suspect.” The interview caused horror in the USA and around the world.
Bovino central player in raids
On Saturday, US citizen Alex Pretti died after being shot during an operation by federal officers in the city in the northern US. Since then, more and more protests have been building up in the city and across the country against the Trump administration and its rigorous deportation policies. The Democrats therefore also want to block budget funds for migration authorities.
Bovino has become a central player in the controversial operations of federal officials in the democratically governed city in the US state of Minnesota. He is known for his martial appearances, always surrounded by an entourage of heavily armed and masked ICE agents. Bovino often has smoke grenades attached to his bulletproof vest, or he wears a double-breasted coat with epaulettes and brass buttons that is visually reminiscent of the M40 winter coat of the German Wehrmacht. The Soviet dictator Josef Stalin also wore such a winter coat.
Critics had drawn comparisons to Nazi methods. California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom already called Bovino “Gestapo Greg” on X. Bovino had rejected this.
Bovino is supposed to leave Minneapolis
The media reports on Bovino’s departure follow a few hours after Donald Trump’s announcement that he was sending the former acting head of the ICE immigration agency, Tom Homan, to the state of Minnesota after the fatal shooting of a US citizen during an operation by federal officers. Government spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt added that Homan should monitor the operations on site. Homan has long been entrusted with overseeing Trump’s deportation policy and is considered a hardliner.
The announcement came after a phone call between Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The Democrat had demanded that the US government withdraw the thousands of federal officers who had been sent to the city for deportation raids.
Also on Monday, Trump spokeswoman Leavitt blamed the Democrats for the fatal shooting in Minneapolis. The real reason for the “tragedy” was the Democrats’ “hostile resistance” to President Donald Trump’s deportation policies, she said. Bovino had also previously claimed in an interview with CNN that Minnesota Governor Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were inciting people and calling for violence. This claim is also completely unsubstantiated.
The government spokeswoman did not give a clear answer at midday (US local time) when asked by journalists whether Bovino would stay in Minnesota: He is an “outstanding professional” and will continue to lead border guards throughout the country.
Trump in need of explanation
As a result of the videos of Pretti’s killing, the Trump administration has found itself in considerable difficulty in explaining things. It is too obvious that the official portrayal of the nurse as a gun-wielding attacker is not true.
The shocking incident could further tarnish Trump’s reputation and cost him votes in the crucial midterm congressional elections in November, political analysts say. According to a quick poll by the YouGov Institute after the fatal shooting of Pretti, almost two thirds of US citizens who saw one of the videos believe that the border guards’ actions were unjustified.
An increasing number of people are also in favor of abolishing the immigration agency ICE, which works closely with border guards. An ICE officer killed unarmed driver Renee Good with three shots in Minneapolis on January 7th. (t-online/con/dpa/afp)