WASHINGTON — Months before two fatal shootings in Minneapolis by Border Patrol agents, Gregory Bovino, who until last week was overseeing the agency’s immigration enforcement operations, pushed back against internal efforts to temper his aggressive approach, according to an email that was obtained by NBC News.
Bovino wanted to conduct large-scale immigration sweeps during an operation in Chicago in September, but the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, told him the focus was to conduct “targeted operations,” arresting only of people known to federal agents ahead of time for their violations of immigration law or other laws, according to the correspondence.
“Mr. Lyons seemed intent that CBP conduct targeted operations for at least two weeks before transitioning to full scale immigration enforcement,” Bovino wrote in an email to Department of Homeland Security leaders in Washington, referring to Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol agents. “I declined his suggestion. We ended the conversation shortly thereafter.”
Yet after 10 days of more targeted enforcement in Chicago, DHS leadership gave Bovino permission to use his more aggressive approach, and Border Patrol agents he oversaw began to stop people they believed were in the U.S. illegally, according to a person familiar with the conversation between Bovino and Lyons.
“Operation Midway Blitz” grew to include roughly 1,600 arrests. The operation sparked clashes with demonstrators and protests throughout the Chicago area. Immigration officers shot two people.
The email in which Bovino complains to DHS leaders underscores tensions within President Donald Trump’s homeland security team as his aides have tried to carry out his mass deportation agenda. Bovino’s aggressive tactics have come under sharp criticism, leading to a lawsuit over immigration arrests in Chicago and his removal last week from his post after two Border Patrol agents under his command fatally shot intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis.
The exchange also aligned Bovino with the top aide to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski. After Minneapolis, Noem and Lewandowski are now taking a back seat to border czar Tom Homan and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott — who have publicly advocated for a targeted approach.
“Mr. Lyons said he was in charge, and I corrected him saying I report to Corey Lewandowski,” Bovino said in the email. Lewandowski has been an unpaid special government employee since last February.
The email appears to contradict public comments from Noem last month, when she said all immigration enforcement operations are targeted against specific people known to authorities and believed to have broken the law.
“In every situation, we’re doing targeted enforcement,” Noem said Jan. 15 at the White House. “If we are on a target and during an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and having them validate their identity.”
Bovino oversaw operations that included large sweeps of groups of people based on their locations, such as day laborers at a Home Depot parking lot, and involved stopping people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally but whose identities were not known to law enforcement.
Spokespeople for ICE, DHS and CBP did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump removed Bovino from Minneapolis this week and pulled his title as commander of Border Patrol. He was sent back to his position as Border Patrol sector chief of El Centro, California.
The shift came amid growing criticism of Bovino’s tactics and his public comments after the fatal shooting of Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis and the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three.
In Bovino’s place, Trump sent Homan to Minneapolis.
