US Border Patrol leader Greg Bovino, who became the leading public face of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, has announced he is retiring.
He told Breitbart News he would retire at the end of March, although he has not yet submitted the required paperwork.
Bovino led operations in Democratic-led cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed two US citizens during confrontations.
He was relieved of his role in Minnesota shortly after January’s fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti drew bipartisan condemnation and widespread protests.
Kristi Noem, head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border patrol, was replaced in her job this month as part of Trump’s shake-up of the agency that is seeking to implement his election promise for mass deportations.
Bovino told Breitbart News: “The greatest honour of my entire life was to work alongside Border Patrol agents on the border and in the interior of the United States in some of the most challenging conditions the agency has ever faced.”
He added that watching agents “giving it their all in some of the most dangerous of environments we have ever faced was humbling”. His departure would cap a nearly 30-year career in immigration enforcement.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the BBC on Monday that Bovino “has not submitted any retirement paperwork”.
He is eligible for retirement and one year away from the mandatory US Customs and Border Protection retirement age of 57, reports NBC News.
Bovino joined Customs and Border Patrol – the largest law enforcement agency in the Department of Homeland Security – in 1996.
He was stationed mainly near the California-Mexico border before joining the Trump administration to lead Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.
Following the deaths of Good and Pretti, the Trump administration removed Bovino from his commander-at-large role and he returned to California. He was replaced by border tsar Tom Homan.
According to the BBC’s US media partner CBS, Bovino also drew criticism back in January for using language offensive to Jewish federal officials on a call.
He made disparaging remarks after being told on the call that Minnesota prosecutor Daniel Rosen, an Orthodox Jew, could not attend the meeting because he was observing the Sabbath, CBS reported.
Public opinion on Trump’s drive for mass deportations has been mixed.
A majority of Americans (61%) still support deporting illegal immigrants, but most (58%) disapprove of how the Republican president has handled the issue, a recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos indicates.
By BBC News
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