A senior U.S. Border Patrol official at the center of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is accused of making antisemitic remarks about a Jewish federal prosecutor during a high-level planning call.
Gregory Bovino, a veteran Border Patrol leader who oversaw the recent surge of federal immigration agents in Minnesota, allegedly used offensive language toward Jewish officials during a Jan. 12 call involving multiple federal agencies, according to several sources familiar with the conversation who spoke to the New York Times and CBS News. The call took place just days after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis and was intended to coordinate a Saturday meeting to address escalating tensions tied to immigration operations in the region.
According to the sources, Bovino was informed during the call that Daniel Rosen — the U.S. attorney for Minnesota and an Orthodox Jew — could not attend the proposed Saturday meeting because he observes the Sabbath. One participant recalled Bovino responding with audible frustration, asking, “Do Orthodox criminals also take off on Saturday?” The same source said Bovino used the phrase “chosen people” in a disparaging way.
Another official briefed on the call described Bovino’s comments as an “antisemitic rant.”
Accounts of the incident were relayed to Pam Bondi and senior officials at the Department of Justice, as well as the White House, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Bovino’s leadership style — often described by colleagues as brusque — had already raised concerns. Those concerns surfaced publicly last year in Chicago, where Bovino, then serving as a Border Patrol “commander-at-large,” clashed with the judiciary during deportation operations. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis criticized Bovino’s conduct while issuing an injunction limiting agents’ use of force. In a written opinion, Ellis said Bovino “appeared evasive over the three days of his deposition, either providing ‘cute’ responses to the Plaintiffs’ counsel’s questions or outright lying.” A federal appeals court later paused the injunction.
Bovino was relieved of his command in Minneapolis last week following intense backlash over the federal response to the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by two Customs and Border Protection officers. On the day of the shooting, Bovino publicly suggested that Pretti appeared intent on “maximum damage” and a potential “massacre” of law enforcement, citing the presence of a handgun. Witness accounts and video later contradicted key aspects of that narrative. Within days, a report submitted to Congress omitted any claim that Pretti had reached for his weapon.
Bovino is now being reassigned to his former post as chief agent in California’s El Centro sector, a role he held before being deployed by the Trump administration to major cities including Los Angeles and Chicago to lead sweeping immigration enforcement actions.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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4 Responses
What a cow!
Shocking! Not.
“Sources familiar with the conversation” means that as far as anyone can tell, the NYT and CBS made it up. At the very least, even if it’s based on something that actually happened, we can’t rely on the way it’s being characterized.
It’s not unreasonable for someone to get annoyed when a US Attorney has to miss a critical meeting in a crisis situation because of Shabbos; his response, asking whether criminals also take Shabbos off, is appropriate. If there were no one else who could represent Rosen in the meeting and fill him in later, then he would have a shayla to ask, whether to take the call or step aside from his position.
Back when Judge Mukasey was Attorney General, I’m sure there were occasions when he had to take a call on Shabbos. And there are some positions that shomrei Shabbos simply shouldn’t take. I know of someone who turned down an opportunity to be the equivalent of a state governor because he felt it would be impossible for him to do the job while keeping Shabbos.
But the bottom line is that without confirmation we can’t even assume this happened in the first place.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis is a cow. The appeals court appropriately reined her in.
And it makes little difference whether Pretti reached for his gun. The fact remains that he set out that day with the intent of attacking law enforcement officers, as he had done previously, which is a felony. And having done so, he then resisted arrest, which is another felony. And knowing he was going to to that, he set out armed. If you are armed and you choose fight the police, which you have no right to do, you should expect that they may use lethal force to protect themselves. If you pose a risk to them, they will try to neutralize that risk.