(NewsNation) — U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has arrived in Minneapolis in the wake of a 37-year-old woman was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
NewsNation reported this week that Bovino would be leading a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis that is slated to include up to 2,000 federal agents and officers. ICE officers arrived in Minnesota in early December, but more federal agents who worked under Bovino in previous enforcement operations were scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis this week.
Bovino was present on Thursday at the scene of protests, which ramped up after Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer on Wednesday. Bovino arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday and was seen patrolling streets with Border Patrol agents that same day.
Bovino declined to comment on the fatal shooting when approached by NewsNation outside the federal building on Thursday.
“We’re just protecting federal facilities and making sure that order remains as it should,” Bovino told NewsNation.
Asked if he supported the use of force used in Wednesday’s deadly shooting, Bovino replied, “No comment.”
David Kim, the Border Patrol assistant chief of the El Centro (Calif) Sector, told NewsNation that protesters are exercising their First Amendment right to free speech, which he says he “absolutely” supports.
Local officials reported three protesters were arrested as part of Thursday’s demonstrations.
Bovino has previously led immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, North Carolina and New Orleans. Bovino has become the face of many of the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement operations and has drawn the ire of elected officials, including Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who characterized the 30-year Border Patrol veteran as a “reality show wannabe”.
Bovino has consistently defended the use of force by federal agents, saying that his teams are conducting “legal, ethical and moral” operations amid public criticism and lawsuits protesting the actions of federal agents. In Chicago, Bovino testified in federal court that agents had exercised “minimum” amounts of force against protesters, including the deployment of tear gas and other non-lethal munitions.
Bovino was forced to sit for several hours of depositions after video was captured of him throwing canisters of tear gas into a crowd of protesters in a Chicago neighborhood. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis accused Bovino of lying on more than one occasion in the testimony in which he defended the use of force by his agents.
Unlike other federal agents, Bovino has never worn a mask during enforcement operations and has gone face-to-face with elected officials both in person and on social media.
On Jan. 1, Bovino posted a video on his X account looking back at the Border Patrol’s enforcement activities in several Democrat-led cities where he wrote that agents “relentlessly enforced the law and protected our communities.”
“As we move into 2026, we are committed to apprehending even more illegal aliens,” Bovino wrote.