The rise and fall of Border Patrol ‘commander at large’ Greg Bovino

washingtonpost.com · By Marianne LeVine, Beth Reinhard, Aaron Schaffer · 2026-01-28T10:00:45.171Z

One year ago, Gregory Bovino was a low-profile Border Patrol chief overseeing a relatively small stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in California. Just months into President Donald Trump’s second term, however, Bovino emerged as the face of one of the most aggressive immigration crackdowns in U.S. history, leading federal agents as they flooded one predominantly Democratic city after another, making thousands of arrests.