Greg Bovino calls withdrawal from Minneapolis a surrender

Retired chief is not responding to lawsuits over Renee Good’s killing

Former US Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, 56, became the public face of the administration’s Minneapolis deportation drive. In a BBC interview, he defended the operation and described the Trump administration’s withdrawal of agents from the city as a “surrender”. Bovino said he was “not responding” to the litigation, praised the officers deployed to Minneapolis and said, “people do lawsuits all the time”. A BBC video accompanying the interview was titled Trump’s ex-border patrol chief challenged over Minneapolis operation.

Earlier in October, Good’s family filed two civil lawsuits against the Trump administration over her killing. The complaints allege wrongful death and a conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of protesters. One complaint names several top 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 alleges that the government’s Minneapolis operation created “an unprecedented environment for state-sponsored violence”.

Good’s family lawyers responded that Bovino was “spewing propaganda” and could not be “judge, jury and executioner”. They said, “Our legal team looks forward to the depositions of Mr Bovino and all of the defendants in this matter”. A White House spokeswoman previously called the lawsuits “baseless”. The BBC’s October 1 report on the litigation was titled Renee Good: Family of US woman killed by ICE agent sues Trump officials.

A separate BBC video report said Renee Good’s partner spoke publicly for the first time since her death.

The fatal January shootings of US citizens Good and Alex Pretti occurred during the Minneapolis immigration operation. Video of the shootings triggered bipartisan backlash and widespread protests. Trump said he was “going to de-escalate a little bit” and withdrew hundreds of immigration agents from the city.

Related BBC coverage included Analysing the Minneapolis shooting frame by frame, published January 25, and Newly released video undermines ICE account of Minneapolis migrant shooting, published April 7. In a BBC report published June 25, the outlet said the ICE raids were over while some Minnesotans said they still lived in fear.

Challenged by the BBC about how immigration agents handled both shooting incidents, Bovino rejected suggestions that video evidence undermined his claim that Good and Pretti intended to harm the agents. He said: “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.” Bovino described his agents in Minneapolis as the “real victims” of what he called “the most violence that any law enforcement mission ever in the history of the United States has been up against”.

Trump initially blamed Good’s actions for her death, saying hours after she was killed that she “violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer”. Weeks later, he called her death a “tragedy” and said agents sometimes were “going to make a mistake”.

The withdrawal from Minnesota included some 700 immigration agents leaving the state, and Bovino was removed from his post. The operation was taken over by the White House’s “border tsar”, Tom Homan. 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, who was Homeland Security secretary during the operation, was fired by Trump in March.

Speaking in Detroit, where he was campaigning for tougher immigration enforcement, Bovino said the administration “threw the towel in” and called for more deportations, which he said were at a “virtual standstill”. He also said he regretted “not going harder in Minnesota and arresting even more illegal aliens”.

The BBC said Bovino had become known for his hardline stance on immigration, often going further in his statements than Trump’s own officials. It reported that he had claimed, without evidence, that 100 million people were illegally in the US and should be deported. Bovino called for “total spectrum immigration enforcement” with support from the US military, including “cruise ships packed to the gills, cars, planes, trains, automobiles, all headed out of the United States packed with illegal aliens”.

When asked about Bovino’s Minneapolis comments, a White House spokesperson said the president had delivered the largest reduction in illegal immigration in modern history. The spokesperson said: “He stopped the invasion of our country and as a result of his policies more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the US.”

Bovino has 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 told the BBC when asked about his intentions. The BBC reported that Bovino recently addressed a rally in Michigan by activists who were calling for authorities to deport Abdul El-Sayed, a US citizen and Democratic candidate in the state’s tightly fought race for a Senate seat. American-born El-Sayed would be the first Muslim member of the US Senate if he defeats Republican Mike Rogers.