Former Border Patrol Chief Calls Minneapolis Pullout a 'Surrender'

Greg Bovino, the former US border patrol chief who became the public face of the Minneapolis deportation drive, has defended the operation and described the later withdrawal of agents as a "surrender" by the Trump administration. He made the remarks in an interview with the BBC.

Bovino also said he was "not responding" to a lawsuit brought by the family of a woman killed during the operation. He appeared to wave away the legal action, praising the officers sent to Minneapolis and saying "people do lawsuits all the time".

The 56-year-old was removed from his role shortly after US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot dead in January. Both shootings were captured on video and set off a bipartisan backlash and widespread protests. President Donald Trump then said he was "going to de-escalate a little bit" and pulled hundreds of immigration agents out of the city. About 700 agents left the state, and the White House "border tsar" Tom Homan took over the operation.

Earlier this month, Good's family filed two civil lawsuits against the administration, alleging wrongful death and a conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of protesters. One names several senior officials, including Bovino and Jonathan Ross, the agent who shot Good, "for their respective individual roles in the operation that led to Renee's death". It argues the operation created "an unprecedented environment for state-sponsored violence". A White House spokeswoman has previously called the lawsuits "baseless".

Responding to Bovino's comments, the family's lawyers said he was "spewing propaganda" and could not be "judge, jury and executioner". They added that their legal team "looks forward to the depositions of Mr Bovino and all of the defendants in this matter".

Speaking in Detroit, where he was campaigning for tougher immigration enforcement, Bovino said the administration "threw the towel in" and that deportations were now at a "virtual standstill". He said he regretted "not going harder in Minnesota and arresting even more illegal aliens", and described his agents as the "real victims" of what he called the most violence any law enforcement mission had faced in US history.

Pressed by the BBC on whether video evidence undermined his claim that Good and Pretti meant to harm agents, Bovino disagreed. "The evidence is that violence was perpetrated against agents of the US government, and this is a society of laws and people need to follow the law. If not, there are consequences," he said. Trump initially said Good "violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer", but weeks later called her death a "tragedy" and said agents were sometimes "going to make a mistake".

Asked why he was removed, Bovino said: "You'd have to ask the administration. I still haven't gotten the final word on that." Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary during the operation, was fired by Trump in March. Bovino has since retired from the border patrol.

He has called for "total spectrum immigration enforcement" backed by the military, and has claimed without evidence that 100 million people are in the US illegally. A White House spokesperson said Trump had "delivered the largest reduction in illegal immigration in modern history" and that more than 3 million illegal aliens had left the country because of his policies.

Bovino also floated "exploring" a presidential run in 2028. "If politicians aren't going to step up and do their job then you might see something happen," he said. He recently addressed a far-right rally in Michigan by activists calling for the deportation of Abdul El-Sayed, a US-born citizen and Democratic Senate candidate who would be the first Muslim US senator if he beats Republican Mike Rogers.