CBP Boots Gregory Bovino From His Social Media Accounts

U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed on Wednesday that it revoked access to several social media accounts controlled by retired Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino after he refused to give up access to them.

The controversial Trump administration figure, who oversaw headline-grabbing immigration operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, had amassed 850,000 followers across several accounts associated with the Border Patrol section in El Centro, California. Bovino, who previously led the regional office there, renamed the accounts after himself last year while carrying out headline-grabbing immigration surges in several cities.

The Washington Examiner first reported that the Trump administration had shut down the accounts on Instagram, Facebook and X that Bovino refused to turn over, despite the accounts being federal property.

“When Bovino took those accounts, they told him not to,” an anonymous DHS official told the Examiner. “He said, ‘Those are my followers, so I’m taking them with me.’”

CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NOTUS. However, a CBP official confirmed to The Hill that “Chief Patrol Agent Bovino has retired from federal service and no longer has access to official government social media accounts.”

It’s not the first time Bovino’s access was revoked. He was briefly booted from the accounts after his stint in Minneapolis. Once he got them back, he went on a reply rampage, responding to dozens of his critics including Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois.

When Pritzker posted “Gregory Bovino has to go,” Bovino responded with, “Nah, gubner, too busy leading agents to arrest illegal aliens. Besides, Chicago may need another double-digit drop in a whole smorgasbord of violent crime, compliments of the Green Machine. Perhaps we could meet for a sugar-free slice of heirloom apple pie -on me!”

The exchange led to a bizarre subsequent interaction on X in which Bovino asked a reporter to make him a pie.

“I’d love to see you bustling around the gubner’s kitchen fixing us a pie. I truly would,” Bovino wrote to Amanda Moore, a journalist who has covered immigration for Mother Jones and other outlets.

“I’ll let the gubner know you’ll be taking care of his appetite, in a healthy way,” Bovino added.

Before Trump returned to office last year, Bovino was a Border Patrol leader who oversaw operations in El Centro. But last July his sector was sent to Los Angeles to crack down on activists and protesters attempting to impede CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

Unlike other federal agents, Bovino did not cover his face or attempt to hide his identity from the public. Instead, he posted videos of his operations throughout cities, often bragging about the aggressive tactics his team used to go after suspected illegal immigrants.

In August, Bovino posted on the El Centro X and Facebook accounts to say that he would be renaming them after himself to better reflect his work in Los Angeles.

A source familiar with internal CBP conversations told the Washington Examiner last week that CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott “gave Bovino a direct order to return the pages/accounts names to reflect El Centro Sector and that new accounts would be created” for Bovino’s new role as commander at large, the title he was given in October.

“Bovino refused, arguing that the followers were his, he said he earned the followers and that his followers expected him to post from new cities,” the source told the Washington Examiner. “It was all about Greg Bovino getting attention and nothing else.”

Bovino didn’t work alone. Corey Lewandowski, a close aide to now-ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, reportedly protected Bovino from CBP’s efforts to take the accounts back.

Despite the intervention, Bovino’s social media reign would soon come to an end.

Following the deaths of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis earlier this year, Bovino was removed as commander at large and returned to his post in El Centro.

Bovino retired late last month — though he did not go so quietly, sitting for an interview with The New York Times where he said that his aggressive tactics did not go far enough.

Just a few days later, Bovino’s access to the social media accounts was revoked.