{"id":150958,"date":"2026-01-27T02:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/150958\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T02:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:59:07","slug":"border-patrol-commander-bovino-returning-to-el-centro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/150958\/","title":{"rendered":"Border Patrol Commander Bovino returning to El Centro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sergeant<\/a>Bovino during an interview at El Centro Border Patrol headquarters on Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Clancy, CalMatters and Evident Media)<\/p>\n

Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino<\/a> has been removed from his role as \u201ccommander at large\u201d and will return to his former post in El Centro, neighboring San Diego County, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a Department of Homeland Security official and two people familiar with the decision.<\/p>\n

Criticism has increased around Bovino in the last few days after his public defense of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti<\/a> by Border Patrol agents under his command.<\/p>\n

For months, Bovino has led high-profile federal operations in Democratic-led cities including Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans and Minneapolis, drawing sharp criticism from local officials, civil rights groups and congressional Democrats. <\/p>\n

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he spoke with President Donald Trump about the enforcement surge and that some federal officers will begin leaving the city as early as Tuesday.<\/p>\n

President Trump signaled a tactical shift on social media, noting a \u201cgood conversation\u201d with Frey and announcing that former ICE chief Tom Homan, designated as the administration\u2019s \u201cborder czar,\u201d will take over federal operations in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Bovino\u2019s return to El Centro marks a notable scaling back of his national role in the administration\u2019s immigration efforts. As sector chief in El Centro, he previously directed hundreds of agents in large-scale operations across Southern California, including Los Angeles, before being tapped to lead the traveling enforcement surge.<\/p>\n

His tenure in the El Centro sector also included a controversial operation last January dubbed \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d in Bakersfield, where Border Patrol agents arrested nearly 80 people, with most having no known criminal or immigration history, according to inewsource. Bovino hailed the operation as a success, touting arrests of \u201ccriminals,\u201d while the ACLU and immigrant attorneys called it a violation of due process and a \u201cfishing expedition.\u201d A lawsuit named Bovino and other officials, warning the raid could be a model for future interior enforcement far from the border.<\/p>\n

Associated Press contributed to this article. <\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bovino during an interview at El Centro Border Patrol headquarters on Feb. 25, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Kevin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[73654,15241,4022,8528,74676,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-150958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-alex-pretti","tag-border-patrol","tag-el-centro","tag-fatal-shooting","tag-greg-bovino","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}