Karoline Leavitt Appears to Throw CBP Chief Under the Bus on Minnesota
Customs and Border Patrol boss Greg Bovino’s stay in Minnesota appears to have come to an end.
The commanding general oversaw ICE and Border Patrol operations across the country, moving from city to city as the agencies violently scoured neighborhoods to satisfy Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller’s mandate to arrest more than 3,000 people a day.
But press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed during a White House press briefing Monday that the Trump administration was moving Bovino elsewhere, apparently replacing him with border czar Tom Homan.
“Mr. Bovino is a wonderful man and he is a great professional,” Leavitt said. “He will continue to lead Customs and Border Patrol across the country. Mr. Homan will be the primary point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis.”
CNN reported Just hours after Leavitt’s press briefing, Bovino and some CBP agents are expected to soon leave Minneapolis and return to their regular work areas.
Bovino’s ouster from the North Star State appears to be part of a larger restructuring in which the Trump administration is trying to reinvent its approach to its immigration agenda.
Donald Trump announced Monday morning that he planned to send Homan in Minnesota “tonight” and working with Governor Tim Walz.
“I told Governor Walz I would have Tom Homan call him and what we are looking for is any criminals they have in their possession,” Trump posted on Social truth. “The governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will speak to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!”
The Republicans have hesitated in the face of national reaction to ICE violence in Minnesota, which so far has involved the senseless killings of two American citizens within weeks of each other.
After their deaths, thousands of Americans took to the streets to protest. Trump’s jobs score has fallen; he currently has a net approval rating of -19 percent.
The country appears to be fed up with the reality of Trump’s immigration agenda, which has so far expelled people from the United States without due process, ripped children from their parents, and ushered thousands of untrained ICE agents into cities and neighborhoods where they are not wanted.
A CBS News Poll released days before Saturday’s killing of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse working with veterans in Minneapolis, found that 61 percent of Americans surveyed felt ICE agents were “too harsh” when arresting and detaining people.
