ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — The Border Patrol commander leading an immigration crackdown in Chicago applauded his agents’ aggressive tactics that have prompted resident backlash and lawsuits.
From his use of chemical agents to a helicopter raid on an apartment building, Gregory Bovino defended the approach of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as appropriate and necessary for what he says are threats his agents have faced in the nation’s third-largest city.
“I didn’t have any reason to think it would be this bad, but it’s far worse than I ever thought,” Bovino told The Associated Press during a wide-ranging interview between meeting employees at a suburban CBP office and sitting for another deposition in growing litigation over his tactics.
More than 3,200 people with alleged immigration violations have been arrested since “ Operation Midway Blitz ” began in September as part of the Trump administration’s push to target cities with “ sanctuary” immigration policies. What started as a handful of arrests in Latino and immigrant-heavy communities has rippled across the city of 2.7 million and its many suburbs, dipping into Indiana.
Bovino spoke to AP as fresh teams were replacing agents who've spent two months in Chicago, some directly from a Los Angeles crackdown. He likened officers fanning the region to police working beats, but their mission is to counteract an “invasion” of “criminal illegal aliens,” how Trump administration leaders describe people living in the country without legal permission.
“We’re what I call now sanctuary busters,” he said. “There are no sanctuaries. There will be no sanctuaries.”
Bovino is visible around Chicago, where the sight of Border Patrol agents away from international borders has startled residents.
While keeping his job as head of a Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, along the U.S.-Mexico border, Bovino has done Chicago River boat patrols and led armed agents on a march along the Michigan Avenue shopping district. He's regularly spotted in daily operations, frequently in Little Village, a Mexican neighborhood with a busy business corridor.
Sightings of agents in and around Chicago draw quick responses by activists and residents who blow whistles and honk horns as some follow CBP vehicles. Agents have increasingly used rubber bullets, pepper balls and CS gas, a synthetic irritant used by police as tear gas.
During one clash in Little Village, Bovino threw a canister of gas toward a crowd he claimed included rioters. The Department of Homeland Security said Bovino was hit with a rock. Bystanders rejected that claim, saying agents deployed gas without warning.
Bovino told the AP that using chemical agents is “far less lethal” than what agents face.
“We use the least amount of force necessary to effect the arrest, we do that,” he said. “If I had more CS gas, I would have deployed it.”
Immigration agents' tactics are the subject of legal challenges. A judge has required them to wear body cameras and document arrests and forced Bovino into a courtroom. Suburban Broadview, the site of an immigration processing center, has also opened three criminal investigations against federal agents.
Agents have made arrests outside courthouses, schools, homes and, increasingly on freeways. On Monday, a half-dozen agents visited a truck stop in Hampshire, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside Chicago, to knock on truck cabs and ask drivers if they were U.S. citizens. The operation resembled Border Patrol checkpoints that are common along the Mexican border. The AP witnessed two arrests — an Uzbek man and a Russian driver with a pending asylum application.
Bovino spoke shortly after President Donald Trump endorsed his administration's use of tear gas and other tactics rarely seen away from the border because "you have to get the people out.”
“I think (the raids) haven't gone far enough because we've been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges, that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday.
Bovino insists some Chicago residents have thanked him, including during the aftermath of a raid where hundreds of agents stormed an apartment building in the largely Black South Shore neighborhood that's had an influx of migrants and prompted frequent complaints.
Agents used a Blackhawk helicopter to rappel onto the building and explosives to open doors in a raid that critics called excessive and inhumane.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called for investigation into reports that children were zip tied as several U.S. citizens were also held for hours. Federal authorities said they arrested two people with alleged Tren de Aragua street gang connections, along with dozens suspected of violating immigration laws.
Bovino said agency intelligence showed the building was a threat, which prompted the intense approach.
“A lot of people said that was a little too much. Well, exactly how would they intend to get, a safety element onto the roof to make it safe for those going into that apartment or the neighboring buildings?” he said. “I’m proud to say that that went off about as good as it possibly can.”
Bovino said he hasn't seen evidence of Border Patrol teams having contact with children, despite residents' accounts and video, including in a neighborhood where people said children preparing for a Halloween parade were exposed to tear gas.
Bovino’s presence is the topic of frequent angry news conferences in the Democratic stronghold as Pritzker, floated as a potential 2028 presidential contender, and Trump have traded barbs. Pritzker argues that federal agents inflame tensions and that the increased militarization is part of a wider plot to influence elections.
Bovino points the finger at Pritzker, activists and news outlets. He called Pritzker “wildly misinformed” while repeatedly mispronouncing his name during the interview, even after being called out, and took jabs at the governor's appearance.
In response, Pritzker's office said Tuesday that the federal government has diverted valuable public safety resources to Bovino's “publicity stunts aimed at boosting his ego.”
Bovino wouldn't say when the Chicago operation would wind down or say what city might be the next target, urging the element of surprise.
“We’re going to be in Chicago a good while,” he said. “But you just never know.”
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Associated Press reporter Elliot Spagat contributed.
