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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Edward Helmore

Ex-border patrol chief defends his record after exit: ‘I wish I’d caught more illegal aliens’

a man in tactical gear walks outside
Gregory Bovino in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 21 January 2026. Photograph: Madison Swart/Reuters

As his retirement looms, Gregory Bovino, the US border patrol’s former commander-at-large, has contended that efforts to curb illegal immigration by Donald Trump’s administration have not gone far enough – showing no remorse over federal agents’ killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis in January.

“I wish I’d caught even more illegal aliens,” he told the New York Times on Tuesday in an exit interview, during which he also referred to the Republican president as “the Trumpster” and acknowledged his retirement at the end of March was not entirely voluntary.

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