Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino looks on at a gas station in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
A former Trump administration official who was kicked out in disgrace is waging a new "civil war" against his replacement, The Daily Beast reported, and this brewing conflict could further imperil one of President Donald Trump's biggest plans.
Greg Bovino previously served as the commander-at-large for Customs and Border Protection, and became one of the biggest faces of Trump's mass deportation agenda during his first year back in the White House. He was removed from that position in January, with many observers arguing that he was taking the fall after two American citizens were shot and killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis, and he later retired altogether in March.
He is not staying quiet, however, as The Daily Beast reported on Thursday that he is speaking out publicly against Trump's new leading deportation official, Tom Homan, accusing him of "political theater" by not more aggressively carrying out deportations against non-violent immigrants. In his most recent post, he took shots at Homan over his threat to send "a hell of a lot more agents to New York" in response to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul's efforts to curb ICE activity in the state.
“He sounds super tough,” Bovino wrote in a post to X. “But zoom in. All he’s actually promising is rounding up the ones who already have known criminal records.” Homan, he said, “is denying reality.”
Bovino further claimed that there were "100 million" other undocumented immigrants "laughing at us," being left untouched by Homan's approach, "staying right where they are… until they rob or kill you," with mass deportations being the only solution.
"Anything less is just political theater," Bovino added.
The Daily Beast deflated that statistic from Bovino, noting that available information puts the total number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. at around 14 million, to say nothing of the distinction between violent and non-violent immigrants. Other data suggests that the total number of immigrants in the U.S., across all categories, is only around 50 million.
These sorts of wildly overstated statistics about immigrants have fueled criticisms of the administration's real intentions, with some arguing that they want to end any and all immigration into the country.
"This is not the first time Bovino has gone rogue in naming Trump officials he believes are going soft on immigration," The Daily Beast's report added. "On a right-wing podcast in late April, he warned that 'some of the team may not have the fortitude that President Trump does,' singling out White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Homan. He has also stated his view that Homan and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott 'do nothing.'"
It continued: "The feud cuts to a central criticism of Trump—that his deportation drive has stalled far short of its promises. The president’s stated target is one million removals a year. The actual pace has held at roughly 1,286 a day — about 460,000 annually — according to UC Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project, as analyzed by researcher Austin Kocher."
