\u201cThe greatest honor 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,\u201d he told the right-wing outlet, while stopping short of offering an explanation for his retirement.<\/p>\n
A senior DHS staffer who spoke to\u00a0The Daily Beast<\/em>\u00a0shed light on the decision.<\/p>\n \u201cHe sees where the wind is blowing,\u201d the insider said. \u201cHe\u2019s got an\u00a0internal investigation\u00a0looming, and he\u2019s already been sent back to El Centro. Now with Noem out, it\u2019s a sign of things to come. Chosen to jump before he\u2019s pushed.\u201d<\/p>\n The Independent<\/em>\u00a0has contacted DHS for comment.<\/p>\n The DHS probe, reported by\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0earlier this month, centers on remarks\u00a0Bovino allegedly made about the Jewish religion.<\/p>\n Bovino griped in a January phone call that Daniel Rosen, the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, was difficult to reach on weekends due to his observance of Shabbat, sources familiar with the matter told the outlet. The commander sarcastically asked whether Jewish criminals stopped short of breaking the law over the weekend.<\/p>\n A U.S. Customs and Border Protection investigator later opened an official inquiry into allegations that Bovino made \u201cunprofessional comments.\u201d At the time, a DHS spokesperson dismissed the story as unverified gossip.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first investigation to be opened into Bovino, who became the public face of Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, overseeing operations in several U.S. cities, including in Minneapolis last winter. The longtime Border Patrol official was frequently seen leading patrols throughout the city, flanked by agents in tactical gear.<\/p>\n On March 3, a Minnesota prosecutor announced a probe over misconduct during immigration enforcement operations. It could lead to charges against multiple federal officers, including Bovino, who allegedly\u00a0lobbed a smoke canister\u00a0at protesters on January 21.<\/p>\n And, in February, DHS\u2019s inspector general revealed he is conducting\u00a0eight individual probes, including into the actions undertaken by U.S.\u00a0Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u00a0and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Bovino was not specifically named in these probes.<\/p>\n Bovino\u2019s comments about\u00a0Renee Good\u00a0and\u00a0Alex Pretti\u00a0\u2014 the two American citizens killed by federal officers in Minneapolis \u2014 also played a part in his downfall, according to\u00a0The Daily Beast<\/em>.<\/p>\n Following their deaths in January, Noem characterized both individuals as domestic terrorists, comments that Bovino defended on television. According to several senior officials who spoke to the outlet, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller became enraged that Bovino \u2014 and his \u201cturn and burn\u201d tactics \u2014 were the focus of the administration\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n Border czar\u00a0Tom Homan\u00a0was later sent to take over operations and ease tensions in Minnesota, while Bovino was ordered to return to his native California and his use of social media was suspended.<\/p>\n On March 5, Trump fired Noem as DHS chief, days after she was lambasted by lawmakers over her leadership failures. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin has been nominated to replace her.<\/p>\n Polls show that the public has concerns about the Trump administration\u2019s handling of immigration. According to a February Ipsos survey, 58 percent of Americans believe the federal government has gone too far to deport illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Border Patrol commander, is leaving the\u00a0Department of Homeland Security\u00a0in order to sidestep fallout<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2834,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2832\/revisions\/2834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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