Former Border Patrol Chief Calls Minneapolis Agent Pullout a Surrender

A former border patrol chief who led the Minneapolis deportation push says the administration gave up when it pulled agents from the city.

Greg Bovino, 56, described the withdrawal as a "surrender" in an interview with the BBC. He was removed from his post shortly after two US citizens were shot dead in January during the operation. Both killings were recorded on video.

President Donald Trump said afterward that he was "going to de-escalate a little bit" and withdrew hundreds of immigration agents. About 700 agents left the state, and Tom Homan, the White House border tsar, took over the operation.

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

Asked by the BBC whether video evidence undercut his claim that Renee Good and Alex Pretti intended to harm agents, Bovino said the video showed otherwise. "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.

Good's family filed two civil lawsuits earlier this month against the administration. The filings allege wrongful death and a conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of protesters. One suit names 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". A White House spokeswoman has previously called the lawsuits "baseless".

Bovino said he was "not responding" to the lawsuit and added that "people do lawsuits all the time". The family's lawyers said he was "spewing propaganda" and could not be "judge, jury and executioner", and said their team "looks forward to the depositions of Mr Bovino and all of the defendants in this matter".

Trump initially said Good "violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer". Weeks later he called her death a "tragedy" and said agents were sometimes "going to make a mistake". Bovino was asked why he was removed from his post. "You'd have to ask the administration. I still haven't gotten the final word on that," he said. Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary during the operation, was fired by Trump in March. Bovino has since retired from the border patrol.

Bovino said he is "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 rally in Michigan where activists called for the deportation of Abdul El-Sayed, a US-born citizen and Democratic Senate candidate.