Following the shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti over the weekend, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol captain who has emerged as the de facto face of the contentious crackdown on illegal immigration in Minneapols, is allegedly being sent away from the city today (Tuesday, January 27).
With Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers roving the streets in an attempt to apprehend those they believe to be in the United States without the proper authorization, tensions in Minnesota have stayed dangerously high over the past few weeks.
The aforementioned murder of Alex Pretti this past Saturday and the deadly shooting of Renee Good on January 7 are just two examples of the violent situations that have resulted from protests and fury against ICE’s oppressive practices.
The most recent of several incidents that have garnered international attention was the death of Pretti, a U.S. citizen who was shot several times after being restrained and pepper-sprayed by Border Patrol officers. It might end up being the change-inducing factor.
In fact, a senior Trump administration official reportedly told Reuters that Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol’s specially designated “commander at large,” has been stripped of the title and will be departing Minnesota along with a few of the agents who were deployed with him.
In the wake of the recent scandals, Bovino has been under fire for consistently standing up for ICE officials and repeating the dubious statements made by the Trump administration about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
After Pretti was killed, Bovino remarked, “This seems like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
However, video footage revealed that Pretti was clutching a phone rather than a gun. Prior to his death by gunshot, the 37-year-old had also been disarmed.
Bovino will now resume his previous position as chief patrol agent at the El Centro sector of the U.S.-Mexico border in California, according to The Guardian.
President Trump said yesterday that he would be sending Tom Homan, the so-called “border tsar,” to Minnesota. Homan is in charge of managing the operations, which are known as Operation Metro Surge, and answering directly to Trump.
The Department of Homeland Security denied that Bovino had been demoted in reaction to the news about his future.
DHS spokesman Tricia McLaughlin said, “Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties.” She cited White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s previous remarks, in which she hailed Bovino as a “great American and a key part of the president’s team.”
CNN has claimed that Bovino’s access to his social media accounts has been suspended by the DHS.
Leavitt seemed to revert to the administration’s original position, which characterized Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” during a White House press briefing on Monday. This was similar to how they attempted to portray Renee Good in the media. Leavitt called the murder a “tragedy,” but White House advisor Stephen Miller had called Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
Meanwhile, Trump declared yesterday that the incident would be examined by his government.
