After Being Dropped From Sweeps, Bovino to Retire

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official who became the face of President Trump's hard-line immigration policy enforcement, is retiring at the end of the month, NBC News reports. Once Customs and Border Protection's nationwide commander at large, Bovino was reassigned in January to his previous post as sector chief along the California-Mexico border in El Centro. Last June, per CBS News, Bovino and his green-uniformed agents were sent to the Los Angeles area, where their immigration arrests at places including Home Depot parking lots prompted an outcry and protests.

Then came assignments that drew attention for aggressive immigration operations in Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Minneapolis. The deployment in Minneapolis included officers' fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both US citizens. Before assuming his national role, Bovino faced a lawsuit over sweeps in California's Kern County, where plaintiffs accused officers of racial profiling, car damage, coercive tactics, and efforts to pressure people into leaving the country. Bovino already was eligible for retirement and was one year shy of CBP's mandatory retirement age of 57. His will take effect the same day Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, to whom he reported, is scheduled to leave her position.