By late 2025, former Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino had become well known for his unapologetic embrace of aggressive and at times even deadly approaches to mass deportation. Now new reporting based on leaked documents indicates that his “smash-and-grab tactics” have been implemented as the norm throughout the Department of Homeland Security.
After the fallout from Trump’s disastrous surge of DHS agents in Minnesota, which left two dead and resulted in scores of civil suits, many celebrated the replacement of Greg Bovino with border czar Tom Homan, but it is now becoming clear that the former’s violent mark has been left on the agency, with the changes implemented by Bovino and his allies now ingrained into the departmental culture.
As an example of this, a leaked internal memo issued two months before Border Patrol’s Minnesota blitz detailed how to get away with smashing a car window then dragging the occupant out with minimal legal liability. This has since become a common practice in cities across the country.
Another leaked memo rescinds borderland migrant entry safety guidelines implemented in 2022 that limited certain interdiction tactics in dangerous environments. As a result, Border Patrol agents are now allowed to arrest migrants in waterways and on the border fence, force them back into waterways or onto the wall, and forcibly remove them to the Mexican side of the border.
Bovino’s role in creating this aggressive enforcement culture is hard to deny. For example, a recent investigation determined that the border region overseen specifically by Bovino — who once praised an agent who had shot a US citizen five times as “excellent” — had the highest ratio of use-of-force incidents to assaults on agents of any sector in the nation, rating well above the average.
To counter Bovino’s impact on the agency, Representative Delia Ramirez of Illinois has introduced the DHS Use of Force Oversight Act, which would implement a DHS policy addressing use of force and de-escalation.
“A Use of Force Policy should NOT be a suggestion — it should be mandated by law,” said Ramirez. “Let me be very clear: reforms are NOT enough. Americans are past reform of a department that has used taxpayer dollars to execute people in broad daylight. ICE must be abolished, and DHS dismantled.”
