Meet Commander Gregory Bovino, the Villain of ICE Deportations

A vicious Border Patrol thug – Gregory Bovino – is invading American cities in a career marked by court condemnations and charges of excessive force.

“Bovino wants to build a brand, a name for himself, like I’m a f****** tough guy. Where were these f****** tough guys under the Biden administration speaking out and demanding reform and change,” one former ICE official told Newsweek.

He actually has an Instagram page featuring photos of his victims.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis declared from the bench that Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino had “admitted that he lied” about the threat posed by protesters. It marked a stunning judicial rebuke of the man who is the face of Trump’s deportation onslaught.

It was the latest chapter in Bovino’s nearly 30-year rampage of aggressive tactics, aborted operations, and a pattern of confrontations with oversight authorities.

Bovino, age 56, joined the Border Patrol in 1996 and trained to become a racist goon. His willingness to ignore civil rights would define his trajectory—and draw damning criticism.

Relieved of command and rehired as top goon

In 2010, Bovino led an operation intended to last three days to raid the airport and bus stations in Las Vegas. The plan was halted after the first hour amid criticism from Nevada Senator Harry Reid. Details of why the operation was aborted remain scarce, and the incident foreshadowed Bovino’s tendency toward brutal, controversial raids.

In 2023, Bovino was briefly relieved of command as Chief Patrol Agent of the El Centro Sector in California after he testified critically about border conditions under the Biden administration. Other factors were also at play—including his social-media presence and an online profile picture of him posing with an assault rifle.  

But Trump returned to the White House, Bovino found himself not just restored but elevated to an unprecedented role: “Commander-at-Large” — a position without precedent.

By October 2025, Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, referred to Bovino as a “Commander at Large” of the Border Patrol, a rank with no statutory basis. He operated outside of the Border Patrol’s command structure, reporting directly to puppy-killer Noem. The unusual arrangement gave Bovino sweeping authority to conduct operations thousands of miles from his official El Centro sector.

Los Angeles: the template for extreme enforcement

On January 7, 2025—the day after Congress certified Trump’s 2024 election win—Bovino led Operation Return to Sender in Kern County, California, invading with 65 Border Patrol agents 300 miles from their usual area in Bakersfield. The operation resulted in the detention and deportation of dozens of Latino farmworkers and day laborers. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit charging that the raid unlawfully targeted people of color regardless of their immigration status.

It was a preview of what was to come.

In June 2025, Bovino was the tactical commander of a mass raid operation in Los Angeles that led to protests across the city and resulted in more than 5,000 arrests. In July, Bovino led a phalanx of military personnel into MacArthur Park, forcing children to flee the park and enraging city officials. WTTW Chicago

When Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized the operations, Bovino told Fox News: “Better get used to us now, because this is going to be normal very soon.”

A vicious, lying thug in Chicago

Bovino arrived in Chicago in September 2025 to lead “Operation Midway Blitz,” and sailed down the Chicago River alongside agents armed with military weapons on September 25, and marched through downtown on September 29, telling reporters that agents were arresting people based on “how they look.”

But it was his abuse during protests that would land him in federal court.

On October 23, during an incident in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, Bovino threw a tear gas canister at protesters without warning. The Department of Homeland Security initially defended his actions, with Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stating that “one [rock] struck Chief Greg Bovino in the head” and that agents had issued multiple warnings.

Video evidence proved this was a lie.

Attacking peaceful American protestors

Judge Sara Ellis found that Bovino admitted during his deposition to lying about whether a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas. In fact, he was not hit by a rock before lobbing the canister without warning at the crowd. Bovino then fired a second canister at the crowd as people fled the area and posed no threat to anyone.

In another incident, a video showed that Bovino “obviously attacks and tackles” a man outside the Broadview ICE facility, but “despite watching this video in his deposition, says that he never used force.”

Ellis repeatedly said that federal agents, including Bovino, lied about the threat posed by protesters and their conduct on the streets of Chicago, stating: “I find the government’s evidence to be simply not credible.”

The judge documented a pattern of abuses, where federal agents:

• Indiscriminately fired tear gas, But it was his use of tasers, flash-bang grenades, tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets at protestors that would land him in federal court. at Chicagoans.
• Tackled them, beat them, struck them with pepper balls.
• Pointed weapons at American protestors.
• In one recorded exchange, one agent told another, “Hey, throw it [tear gas] for fun.”

During Halloween weekend, federal agents deployed chemical irritants on residents for the fourth day in a row, prompting Ellis to note: “Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer. They just don’t. And you can’t use riot-control weapons against them.”

The injunction and its aftermath

On November 6, Ellis issued a sweeping injunction designed to permanently rein in agents’ use of tear gas, pepper balls and other crowd control measures, ruling that there was ample evidence that federal agents had violated Chicagoans’ First Amendment rights. “The use of force shocks the conscience,” Ellis said. “This conduct shows no sign of stopping.”

Bovino left Chicago in mid-November after two months of operations, with Homeland Security closing its command center at Naval Station Great Lakes. But DHS officials have indicated he could return with four times as many agents.

The Road Ahead: Louisiana and Beyond

Bovino has now been tapped to lead a new invasion of Louisiana called “Swamp Sweep,” with plans to unleash 250 warlike Border Patrol agents on a two-month operation targeting approximately 5,000 arrests.

He’s currently overseeing operations in Charlotte, North Carolina, where more than 200 arrests have been made and Border Patrol vehicles have had their tires slashed amid mounting opposition.

Despite the controversies, Bovino remains defiant. In an interview with the Associated Press, when asked about the Little Village tear gas incident, Bovino said: “If I had more CS gas, I would have deployed it.”

A pattern of escalation

Gregory Bovino’s career reveals a consistent pattern: aggressive tactics that violate legal boundaries, operations that draw immediate backlash, and a willingness to escalate force even when facing judicial oversight.

As Bovino moves storm troopers from city to city—Los Angeles to Chicago to Charlotte to New Orleans—communities brace for what federal court documents have characterized as tactics that “shock the conscience.”

Despite a federal judge’s finding that he repeatedly lied under oath, Gregory Bovino continues to operate with the full backing of the lawless Department of Homeland Security, in a role that exists nowhere in the Border Patrol’s official command structure.

The question now is not whether Bovino will continue his lawless military approach, but which American city will be next.