Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander-at-large who has led federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, pushed again towards critics who in contrast ICE brokers to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.
“They’re making an attempt to painting Border Patrol brokers and ICE brokers as Gestapo, Nazi and lots of different phrases,” Bovino advised CNN on Sunday, announcing the phrase “Gestapo” with a German accent.
At a press convention on Sunday following the killing a day prior of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol brokers, Bovino once more decried the comparability.
“When politicians, group leaders and a few journalists interact in that heated rhetoric we hold speaking about, once they make the selection to vilify regulation enforcement, calling regulation enforcement names like a Gestapo, or utilizing the time period kidnapping, that could be a selection that’s made,” stated Bovino. “There are actions and penalties that come from these decisions.”
Now, Bovino is reportedly leaving Minneapolis amid a backlash over the killings there. After The Atlantic reported Monday night time that Bovino had been demoted to his former put up in El Centro, California, Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a put up on X that Bovino “has NOT been relieved of his duties.”
His exit comes amid pitched debate concerning the appropriateness of Holocaust analogies in describing ICE’s actions in Minneapolis. Critics of ICE have often likened its practices to that of the Nazis, whereas each defenders of ICE and Jewish voices have decried such comparisons as inappropriate.
US Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino leaves federal court docket at Dirksen Federal Constructing after his listening to in Chicago, Illinois, on Oct. 28, 2025. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)
A centerpiece of the discourse has been a greatcoat worn by Bovino which some critics, and German media shops, have stated resembles the uniforms of Nazi troopers.
“In his coat, Bovino appears to be like like a Nazi officer,” Jörg Häntzschel wrote earlier this month in Süddeutsche Zeitung, a liberal German outlet. “Different international locations additionally had these coats, however Bovino’s remainder of the outfit completes the Nazi look: a carefully shaved head, as if he’d gone to the barber with an image of Ernst Röhm,” a number one Nazi.
Rebutting the critique, Bovino advised NewsNation that the coat was “Border Patrol challenge” and that he had bought it in 1999.
Nonetheless, the coat has impressed a number of reflections on how Bovino’s sartorial decisions would possibly convey, coming as immigration enforcement has grown more and more militarized and as U.S. authorities social media accounts have posted obvious white supremacist dogwhistles.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic potential White Home contender in 2028, described Bovino’s apparel as “S.S. garb” on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, final week after calling the coat “Nazi-coded” on social media.
After information of Bovino’s demotion broke, Newsom wrote in a put up on X, “Gestapo Greg is out. Preserve the stress up. It’s working.”
