Top Border Patrol agent Gregory K. Bovino ‘relieved of his command’ after talking to Congress: officials

House Republicans are probing whether Customs and Border Protection officials relieved a chief patrol agent of his command in retaliation for talking to Congress about President Biden’s handling of the southern border crisis.

El Centro (Calif.) Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino was “reassigned to a vague, indefinite, and temporary headquarters assignment” in Washington hours after sitting for a transcribed interview with members of the House Oversight Committee and House Homeland Security Committee on July 12, the panels’ chairmen said Friday.

“We write with deep concern that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials may have retaliated against a witness in a Congressional investigation,” Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) wrote in a letter to Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner Troy A. Miller.

Comer and Green said “a credible whistleblower with extensive experience in and knowledge of CBP personnel practices” came forward with the allegations — and that the alleged retaliation was “consistent with a common CBP practice to get rid of employees perceived as problematic by high-level officials by forcing those employees, out of frustration, to relocate, retire, or resign.”

“Given the suspicious timing of the reassignment coinciding with Chief Bovino’s cooperation with a Congressional inquiry, we demand CBP account for the current status of Chief Bovino’s employment and assignment within the U.S. Border Patrol, provide documents and communications relevant to any reassignment and the reasons for any related employment action, and brief the Committee on this matter,” the lawmakers told Miller.

Bovino, who was serving on the El Centro Border Patrol Sector, had been expected to appear at a January Oversight Committee hearing along with other chief patrol agents — but his superiors had barred him from testifying about border issues.

The whistleblower informed the Republican lawmakers that Bovino “may have produced written testimony in preparation for this hearing that was dissatisfactory to CBP officials: so much so that he was verbally reprimanded by headquarters officials,” they added.

The committee leaders have asked for CBP, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House to turn over documents and communications related to Bovino’s planned appearance before Congress, his transcribed interview and his apparent reassignment by Aug 4.

They have also asked CBP officials to brief their committees on the matter by July 28.

More than 1.7 million migrants have been apprehended on the southwest border in fiscal year 2023, CBP data shows. The agency recorded 2.3 million and 1.7 million migrant encounters in fiscal years 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Congressional Republicans have roundly criticized President Biden’s lax “open border” policies that have seen more than 2 million migrants subsequently released into the US, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Green recently announced that his committee will soon release a lengthy report on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, claiming the Cabinet member has lied to Congress about the deteriorating situation at the border and failed to enforce laws against illegal immigration.

Testimony from Border Patrol agents such as Bovino may be included as part of the report.