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Gregory Bovino, the controversial Border Patrol leader who helped oversee the immigration surge in Minnesota, allegedly used language offensive to the Jewish federal officials on a recent call, multiple sources familiar with the call told CBS News.
The call, which was held on Jan. 12, five days after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, involved multiple federal officials who were trying to coordinate a Saturday meeting to discuss issues related to the massive deployment of federal immigration agents in the area. Bovino was told on the call that Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, an Orthodox Jew, could not attend that meeting because he observes the Sabbath.
Bovino allegedly responded with audible frustration that Rosen was not available for the Saturday meeting, sources familiar with the planning call said. One of them recounted that Bovino replied, “Do Orthodox criminals also take off on Saturday?”
That source said Bovino also used the phrase “chosen people” in a disparaging manner.
Another source briefed on the conversation described Bovino’s alleged remarks as an “antisemitic rant.” The New York Times first reported Bovino’s alleged comments.
Reports of Bovino’s conduct on the call were relayed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in the Department of Justice, as well as the White House, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the Department of Justice have not yet responded to a request for comment.
Bovino’s remarks contributed to a growing unease between federal immigration officials and some Minnesota-based federal prosecutors, as ICE and Border Patrol officers have engaged in a widening surge of raids and arrests, and thousands took to the streets in protest in reaction, sources told CBS News.
Bovino’s sometimes brusque manner had raised concerns previously. The former Border Patrol “commander-at-large” ran afoul of a federal judge in Chicago during deportation operations there in October. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, whose injunction limited federal immigration agents’ use of force in Chicago, criticized what she called Bovino’s “cute” responses about clashes between agents and protesters.
She wrote in her opinion, “Bovino appeared evasive over the three days of his deposition, either providing ‘cute’ responses to the Plaintiffs’ counsel’s questions or outright lying.” In November, an appeals court paused Ellis’ injunction.
Bovino was reassigned and relieved of his command in Minneapolis earlier this week after an intense backlash over how top U.S. officials, including Bovino, responded to the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by two Customs and Border Protection officers.
On the same day that Pretti was shot, Bovino said of him that “this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” a reference to the fact that Pretti was armed with a handgun when he was killed. Some of Bovino’s claims about Pretti were soon contradicted by witnesses and video from the scene. And within several days, the government submitted a report to Congress about the case that contained no mention of Pretti ever reaching for his firearm during the skirmish with CBP agents.
Bovino is being reassigned to his old job at California’s El Centro sector, where he served as the chief agent before the Trump administration deployed him to major American cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, to lead sweeping immigration roundups.
The alleged comments from Bovino come at a time when the Trump administration has sought to make countering antisemitism one of its primary policy goals.
Since last year, the Justice Department and the Department of Education launched dozens of civil rights probes into whether college campuses failed to adequately protect Jewish students during protests over the war in Gaza in 2023.
