Greg Bovino was Trump’s immigration enforcer. Now he thinks the administration isn’t tough enough

Greg Bovino thinks the Trump administration is weak on mass deportation. And he’ll share viewpoint that message anywhere he can — even on a whiskey bottle.

Months removed from his unceremonious dismissal as the public face of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration-enforcement surge, the former Border Patrol “commander-at-large” has found a new role as an anti-immigrant influencer, sharing his radical views with anyone who will listen. He regularly mixes in criticism of his former employers for what he views as their failure to live up to Trump’s mass deportation pledge.

Bovino has traveled to Europe to speak with members of right-wing parties on immigration crackdowns. He has frequented far-right podcasts to amplify his uncompromising outlook on immigration enforcement, is working on a tell-all book of his time in the administration and has lined up speaking engagements with young conservatives to share his belief that immigration is changing the fiber of this country.

Bovino has also created his own whiskey label, Commander’s Choice, with bottles available to pre-order for $99 with a label that says: “Deport them all. America first.” (“It’s a fantastic drink for law enforcement,” he told CNN. “It’s keto friendly.)

His antics have irritated more than a few people in the administration along the way. The Department of Homeland Security that once gave him unprecedented power now refers to him as a “disgruntled” former employee.

Those feelings go both ways. In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Bovino said he resents how his security detail was pulled after he retired despite the constant death threats he says he receives.

“Do I think they want me dead? At this point, yes,” he told Carlson.

In a series of interviews with CNN over the summer, and in podcast appearances, Bovino appears simultaneously hurt and furious over how the administration pushed him aside following the fatal shootings by federal law enforcement officers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens in Minneapolis .

“In a nutshell, what I wanted to do is continue the push for mass deportations and the push to save America from what’s happening here in terms of immigration,” he told CNN in a recent interview. “I don’t see those mass deportations occurring the way I think they need to go.”

Bovino appears to relish the controversy, dismissing criticism and maintaining that he’s not alone in his views that the administration is falling short of its immigration enforcement promises.

He’s continued to draw the ire of some within the administration – he won’t immediately say who — and he said he has been told, unofficially, to knock off his public airing of grievances.

“I said no — a lot more forcefully than no,” he said.

Lev Radin/Sipa USA/AP

Bovino has long been known as something of a loose cannon with a penchant for provocative antics and social media trolling. Trump himself once described Bovino as “a pretty out there kind of a guy.” (“Maybe a lot of people think I’m out there,” Bovino said. “I really don’t care.”)

But to a segment of the president’s base that has become disillusioned with the administration’s more lowkey approach to immigration enforcement after the fatal shootings by federal officers of Good and Pretti earlier this year, Bovino has emerged as a leader with a clear-eyed view of what they believe is needed.

Mike Howell, a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and the president of the Oversight Project, said Bovino is “indisputably correct” in his criticisms.

“The Trump administration promised mass deportations and hasn’t delivered it yet,” Howell said. “And so, there is going to be that flank open, up until they deliver it.”

“Bovino is going to have a platform and credibility until he’s proven wrong by the Trump administration actually doing mass deportations, and so whether it’s him or anybody else, the field for somebody to reclaim the issue is wide open,” Howell added.

Immigration arrests, however, have increased over recent months. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took around 51,000 people into custody in August, according to a source familiar with the data, continuing an upward trend in immigration arrests and setting a new high under the second Trump administration.

Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images

Still, some immigration restrictionists, including Bovino, say the administration is lagging.

He says immigrants who do not integrate into American society are a bigger threat to the country than those who are criminals or terrorists. He wants a temporary moratorium on all immigration to the US. And he doesn’t just want undocumented immigrants deported – he wants those living here legally who have not assimilated into his idea of American culture to go, too.

He believes more than 100 million people are living illegally in the country, which is multitudes more than even the most expansive estimates cited by anti-immigration hardliners.

(The Pew Research Center estimated there were a record 14 million undocumented immigrants in the US in 2023 — the most recent year with comprehensive data.)

While Bovino has his supporters, some former and current Homeland Security officials are frustrated by the attention he gets and have largely dismissed the ongoing public commentary.

The critics include those who support Bovino’s overall goal of reducing the population of undocumented immigrants in the country, but who were not impressed by the way the operations were handled earlier this year in cities like Minneapolis.

“Secretary Noem was pursuing this strategy of theatrical enforcement that he was kind of the face of, and there was no way that was going to be sustainable,” said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports reduced immigration.

“It hurt the president, and it hurt his agenda of reducing the illegal population. Part of the reason the administration is not deporting as many people as it would like to see is precisely because of the strategy that Bovino was the face of, that undermined the political support for deporting illegals,” he added.

Bovino’s decades-long career with Border Patrol ended earlier this year amid an internal investigation. According to government files, which were first reported by the Chicago Tribune and posted on the Customs and Border Protection website, Bovino was contacted by investigators on March 2 regarding “allegations of misconduct,” that were reported to the agency, including allegations that he had made antisemitic comments. Bovino has denied that the comments in question were intended to be antisemitic. He was also accused of lying about events during an immigration operation in Chicago, raising questions about his credibility , according to the files.

Bovino retired later that month. The results of that investigation were unclear. A CBP spokesperson said the agency “does not comment on matters regarding personnel who are no longer with the agency.”

Bovino told Border Hawk that he was forced to retire and claimed that CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility was weaponized against him.

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Bovino nurses some grudges about how his time in federal government ended, arguing that he was kneecapped from implementing the “total spectrum immigration enforcement” that he had hoped for, and which he is calling for now, before his vision could fully be realized.

“We surrendered in Minnesota,” he said. “We didn’t get there yet because it was cut off, as you know, very suddenly, and almost without explanation.”

He sees the upcoming midterm elections as a way to pressure the administration to double down on its immigration crackdown — in his vision.

Bovino is careful to avoid criticizing the president directly, but said he believes Trump is surrounded by ineffective officials who are more concerned by optics than results, citing White House border czar Tom Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott.

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

“If I hurt someone’s feelings – some feckless government bureaucrat – because I’m telling the truth and they can’t handle the truth, well they can kiss my ass, by God,” Bovino said.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis broadly defended the administration’s immigration policies in a statement, saying that more than 3 million undocumented immigrants have left the country either through deportation or departing on their own. She also defended Homan.

“The American people are deeply appreciative of Tom Homan’s work and can rest easy knowing someone with a proven track record is working to deliver on the President’s promise to deport a historic number of illegal aliens,” Bis said.

A DHS spokesperson said “disgruntled former employees” were “welcome to criticize their nation’s leadership.”

Asked by CNN at a press conference in June about Bovino’s criticisms over Mullin’s leadership of his agency, the secretary tersely dismissed him.

“I’ve never met the guy,” Mullin said. “He’s irrelevant to me. I don’t know who he is.”

Bovino has since moved back to his home state of North Carolina and frequently visits east Tennessee. He’s writing a book that he describes as a “book of truth, leadership, and philosophy,” beaming into interviews and fielding speaking engagements. Recently, he revisited one of the locations of his operations, leading to a confrontation between him and a local business owner.

He’s trying to prove a point. And also trying to monetize it.

“It’s all toward the same end. Are we going to bring attention to what the problem is? If I can use a whiskey label to do that, if I can use the podcast to do that, if I can go to a bakery?” he said.

Camden Ford, co-owner of Timber Creek Distillery based in Florida and maker of Bovino’s new whiskey, told CNN he connected with him by way of Bovino’s sister. “I’m happy to work with Greg if he wants to do a whiskey. I’m happy to work with anybody. I don’t really care about their politics,” he told CNN, adding that the distillery works with dozens of customers on private labels.

The two have discussed a series that would include a bottle for each of the operations Bovino led over the last year.

“He may be controversial, but it may be the thing that sells his whiskey for him,” Ford said.

The attention is also making Bovino a draw to the right-wing speaking circuit. He appeared at an event hosted by the group Save Heritage Indiana in August and is scheduled to appear before the New York Young Republicans Club later this month.

Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Bovino is also spreading his message abroad.

In Portugal, he gave an interview with a far-right French publication in which he cited Nazi General Erwin Rommel, along with American figures like Gen. George S. Patton and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, as people who became the faces of large movements because of the unique set of circumstances they faced. (Bovino told CNN his answer had “nothing to do with Rommel, his style [or] his beliefs” and that he only brought him up to relate to the European publication that interviewed him.)

In June, Bovino spoke at another conference in Romania, where he posted a picture of himself in front of the tomb of Vlad the Impaler, the former Wallachian prince whose bloodthirsty methods while resisting an Ottoman invasion gave him his gruesome name.

“He was sort of their original Border Patrol,” Bovino said. “He said, ‘You know, we’ve had enough of these Ottomans coming in and doing terrible things to our citizens. I’m going to try to do something about it.’ And obviously, back in the medieval times, things are a little different than they are now.”

In May, a group of political operatives set up a website — along with a PayPal donation link — encouraging Bovino to mount a presidential campaign in 2028. Bovino said he was unaware of that specific effort until it began and told CNN that he hasn’t seen a penny of any of the donations made on that website.

But he said young Republicans frequently ask him to run for president, that he finds the idea “very, very, very interesting” and that he is keeping his options open.

CNN’s Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.

格雷格·博维诺认为特朗普政府在大规模驱逐出境问题上态度软弱。他会不遗余力地宣传这一观点——甚至不惜把这种观点印在威士忌酒瓶上。

在被特朗普总统强硬移民执法政策的公众代言人无情解雇数月后，这位前边境巡逻队“特派指挥官”找到了新的角色——反移民意见领袖，向所有愿意倾听的人兜售其激进观点。他经常批评其前雇主未能兑现特朗普的大规模驱逐出境承诺。

博维诺曾前往欧洲与右翼政党成员探讨移民政策的严厉打击。他频繁出现在极右翼播客节目中，以强化其在移民执法问题上毫不妥协的观点；他正在撰写一本揭露其在政府任职期间内幕的书籍；他还安排了与年轻保守派人士的演讲活动，分享他认为移民正在改变美国社会结构的观点。

博维诺还创立了自己的威士忌品牌“指挥官之选”，瓶装酒接受预订，售价 99 美元，标签上写着：“把他们都遣返。美国优先。”（他告诉 CNN：“这对执法人员来说是一款绝佳的饮品。它符合生酮饮食的要求。”）

他的种种怪异举动一路以来惹恼了不少政府官员。曾经赋予他空前权力的国土安全部如今称他为“心怀不满”的前雇员。

这种感觉是双向的。博维诺在最近接受塔克·卡尔森采访时表示，尽管他声称自己不断收到死亡威胁，但他退休后安保人员却被撤走，这让他感到愤慨。

“你觉得他们想让我死吗？就目前来看，是的，”他告诉卡尔森。

在夏季接受 CNN 的一系列采访以及在播客节目中，博维诺对联邦执法人员在明尼阿波利斯枪杀两名美国公民蕾妮·古德和亚历克斯·普雷蒂后，政府将他边缘化的做法，既感到受伤又感到愤怒。

“简而言之，我想要做的就是继续推动大规模遣返，并努力阻止美国在移民问题上陷入目前的困境，”他在最近接受CNN采访时表示。“但我认为大规模遣返无法以我认为应有的方式进行。”

博维诺似乎很享受这种争议，他驳斥批评，并坚称并非只有他一人认为政府在移民执法方面未能兑现承诺。

他继续激怒政府内部的一些人——他没有立即透露是谁——他说有人非正式地告诉他，要停止公开表达不满。

“我说‘不’——而且语气比‘不’要强硬得多，”他说。

Lev Radin/Sipa USA/AP

博维诺一直以来都以行事鲁莽、喜欢挑衅和在社交媒体上挑衅而闻名。特朗普本人也曾形容博维诺是“一个相当特立独行的人”。（博维诺说：“也许很多人觉得我很特立独行，但我真的不在乎。”）

但对于总统的部分支持者来说，在今年早些时候联邦官员枪杀古德和普雷蒂之后，他们对政府在移民执法方面较为低调的做法感到失望，博维诺已经成为一位对他们认为需要做什么有着清醒认识的领导者。

保守派智库传统基金会的访问学者、监督项目主席迈克·豪厄尔表示，博维诺的批评“无可辩驳地正确”。

“特朗普政府承诺大规模驱逐出境，但至今尚未兑现，”霍威尔说。“因此，在他们兑现承诺之前，这一侧翼将始终敞开。”

“在特朗普政府真正进行大规模驱逐出境行动证明博维诺的观点是错误的之前，他将一直拥有平台和信誉。因此，无论是他还是其他人，都有机会重新掌控这个问题，”霍威尔补充道。

然而，近几个月来，移民逮捕人数有所增加。据一位知情人士透露，美国移民和海关执法局8月份拘留了约51000人，延续了移民逮捕人数上升的趋势，并创下了特朗普第二任期内的新高。

Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images

不过，包括博维诺在内的一些移民限制主义者表示，本届政府行动迟缓。

他声称，那些无法融入美国社会的移民对国家的威胁比罪犯或恐怖分子更大。他希望暂时停止所有移民进入美国。而且，他不仅想遣返非法移民，还想遣返那些合法居住在美国但尚未融入他所理解的美国文化的人。

他认为有超过 1 亿人非法居住在该国，这比反移民强硬派引用的最乐观的估计数字还要多得多。

（皮尤研究中心估计，2023年美国无证移民人数达到创纪录的1400万——这是有全面数据的最新年份。）

虽然博维诺有不少支持者，但一些前任和现任国土安全部官员对他受到的关注感到不满，并且大多对持续不断的公众评论不予理睬。

批评者中包括那些支持博维诺减少美国境内非法移民人口这一总体目标的人，但他们对今年早些时候在明尼阿波利斯等城市开展的行动的处理方式并不满意。

“诺姆部长奉行的是一种作秀式的执法策略，他本人就是这种策略的代言人，但这绝不可能持续下去，”支持减少移民的移民研究中心执行主任马克·克里科里安说道。

“这损害了总统的利益，也损害了他减少非法移民人口的计划。政府未能像预期那样遣返那么多人，部分原因正是因为博维诺所代表的策略削弱了遣返非法移民的政治支持，”他补充道。

今年早些时候，博维诺在边境巡逻队长达数十年的职业生涯因内部调查而结束。据《芝加哥论坛报》率先报道并发布在海关与边境保护局网站上的政府文件显示，3月2日，调查人员就“不当行为指控”联系了博维诺，这些指控已上报至该机构，其中包括他发表反犹太言论的指控。博维诺否认相关言论意在反犹太。文件还显示，他还被指控在芝加哥的一次移民行动中撒谎，这引发了人们对他信誉的质疑。

博维诺于当月晚些时候退休。那次调查的结果尚不清楚。美国海关与边境保护局（CBP）发言人表示，该机构“不对已离职人员的相关事宜发表评论”。

博维诺告诉《边境鹰报》，他被迫退休，并声称美国海关与边境保护局的职业责任办公室被用来对付他。

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

博维诺对他在联邦政府的任期结束方式耿耿于怀，他认为，在他完全实现自己的愿景之前，他一直希望实施“全面移民执法”，而现在他却呼吁实施这一政策，但却因此受到了阻碍。

“我们在明尼苏达州投降了，”他说。“我们还没来得及到达那里，因为正如你所知，边境线被切断了，而且非常突然，几乎没有任何解释。”

他认为即将到来的中期选举是向政府施压，迫使其加大力度打击移民的一种方式。

博维诺小心翼翼地避免直接批评总统，但他表示，他认为特朗普身边围绕着一些无能的官员，他们更关心的是表面功夫而不是实际结果。他列举了白宫边境事务主管汤姆·霍曼、国土安全部长马克韦恩·穆林以及美国海关和边境保护局局长罗德尼·斯科特。

Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

博维诺说：“如果我因为说了真话而伤害了某些人的感情——比如某个不负责任的政府官员——而他们又接受不了真话，那他们就去亲我的屁股吧，老天爷啊。”

白宫发言人劳伦·比斯在一份声明中为政府的移民政策进行了全面辩护，称已有超过300万非法移民通过被驱逐出境或自行离开美国。她还为霍曼辩护。

“美国人民对汤姆·霍曼的工作深表感激，他们可以放心，因为一位拥有可靠履历的人正在努力兑现总统遣返大量非法移民的承诺，”比斯说。

美国国土安全部发言人表示，“心怀不满的前雇员”“有权批评国家领导层”。

6 月，CNN 在一次新闻发布会上就博维诺对穆林领导其机构的批评向穆林提问时，这位部长简短地驳斥了他。

“我从没见过这个人，”穆林说。“他跟我无关。我不知道他是谁。”

博维诺后来搬回了家乡北卡罗来纳州，但经常回田纳西州东部探访。他正在撰写一本他称之为“关于真理、领导力和哲学的书”，并积极参与各种采访和演讲活动。最近，他重访了自己曾经运营过的某个地方，结果与当地一位企业主发生了冲突。

他想证明某个观点，也想从中获利。

“这一切都是为了同一个目的。我们是否要让人们关注问题所在？如果我能用威士忌酒标来做到这一点，如果我能用播客来做到这一点，如果我能去一家面包店？”他说道。

位于佛罗里达州的Timber Creek Distillery酒厂的共同所有人兼Bovino新威士忌的酿造者Camden Ford告诉CNN，他是通过Bovino的妹妹认识他的。“如果Greg想酿造威士忌，我很乐意与他合作。我乐意与任何人合作。我并不在意他们的政治立场，”他告诉CNN，并补充说，酒厂与数十家客户合作生产自有品牌产品。

两人曾讨论过推出一个系列，该系列将包含一瓶酒，代表博维诺在过去一年中领导的每一次行动。

福特说：“他或许颇具争议，但这或许正是他威士忌畅销的原因。”

这种关注也使博维诺成为右翼演讲圈的热门人物。他于8月出席了由“拯救印第安纳州遗产”组织举办的活动，并计划于本月晚些时候在纽约青年共和党俱乐部发表演讲。

Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg/Getty Images

博维诺也在向国外传播他的理念。

在葡萄牙，他接受了一家法国极右翼媒体的采访，在采访中他提到了纳粹将军埃尔温·隆美尔，以及美国人物乔治·S·巴顿将军和联邦调查局局长J·埃德加·胡佛，称他们因为所处的特殊环境而成为大型运动的代表人物。（博维诺告诉CNN，他的回答“与隆美尔、他的风格[或]他的信仰无关”，他提到隆美尔只是为了迎合采访他的那家欧洲媒体。）

6 月，博维诺在罗马尼亚的另一次会议上发表了讲话，并在会上发布了一张自己在弗拉德三世（穿刺者弗拉德）墓前的照片。弗拉德三世是瓦拉几亚的一位王子，他在抵抗奥斯曼帝国入侵时采取了嗜血的手段，因此得名“穿刺者弗拉德”。

博维诺说：“他算是他们最初的边境巡逻队。他说，‘你知道，我们受够了这些奥斯曼人进来对我们的人民做种种恶事。我要尽力阻止这一切。’显然，在中世纪，情况和现在有所不同。”

今年5月，一群政治人士建立了一个网站，并附上了一个PayPal捐款链接，鼓励博维诺参加2028年的总统竞选。博维诺表示，他对此行动毫不知情，直到行动开始。他还告诉CNN，他没有收到该网站上任何捐款的一分钱。

但他表示，年轻的共和党人经常要求他竞选总统，他觉得这个想法“非常、非常、非常有趣”，并且他会继续考虑各种可能性。

CNN的埃德·拉万德拉对本报道亦有贡献。