Homeland Security investigates remarks of Border Patrol leader Gregory Bovino

The Department of Homeland Security has opened an internal investigation into a report that Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol commander, made disparaging remarks about the Jewish faith of the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota during an immigration operation in the state.

Bovino, who was the most visible figure in the government’s crackdown in Minnesota, complained in a phone call to federal prosecutors in January that the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, was hard to reach over the weekend because he observes Shabbat, according to several people with knowledge of the call. Shabbat is a 25-hour period of rest that starts Friday at sundown and often includes refraining from using electronic devices.

Bovino used the term “chosen people” in voicing his frustration about Rosen, an Orthodox Jew, and asked sarcastically whether Orthodox Jewish criminals refrained from breaking the law during the weekend, the people with knowledge of the call said.

The New York Times reported on the call in late January, based on the accounts of people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive conversation. CBS News later reported that it confirmed key details of the conversation.

John Breckenridge, an investigator with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s office of professional responsibility, told the Times in an email that he had opened an “official inquiry into the allegation” that Bovino had made “unprofessional comments.” Customs and Border Protection is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Breckenridge contacted the Times as part of the investigation, seeking voluntary assistance in contacting the people who gave accounts of the call. The Times did not provide information regarding its reporting, in keeping with long-standing policy to such requests. Breckenridge declined to say whether he was investigating other aspects of Bovino’s conduct.

Bovino did not respond to an email Monday about the internal investigation. In an email, a representative for the Department of Homeland Security said that the inquiry was started after a member of Congress sent a letter about “anonymous allegations.” Such an inquiry is standard procedure, the representative said, and does not indicate “any confirmation of wrongdoing.”

Rosen, who previously said that a main reason he pursued his current role was to combat antisemitism, declined to comment about the inquiry.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General said last month that it was conducting a broad review of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics as it pursues a broad deportation campaign.

Breckenridge’s inquiry is the only publicly known effort by a federal agency to examine Bovino’s actions during tense enforcement operations he led in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Minneapolis region.

Mary Moriarty, the elected prosecutor in Hennepin County, Minnesota, said Monday that her office was “actively investigating” behavior by Bovino during a confrontation with protesters near a Minneapolis park Jan. 21. She said that investigation was part of a broader review of “potentially unlawful behavior” by federal agents.

On that day, Bovino was captured on video warning, “I’m going to gas — get back! — gas is coming,” before lobbing a gas canister toward protesters that generated a big plume of green smoke, videos showed. Last fall, a federal judge criticized Bovino for his use of tear gas in the Chicago area, finding that he had, in one instance, falsely claimed that a protester hit him with a rock before he deployed tear gas.

The remarks Bovino is said to have made about Rosen occurred as officials at the U.S. attorney’s office were debating how to address the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration agent. At the time, Bovino was asking prosecutors to more aggressively pursue criminal charges against residents who he said were impeding and assaulting federal agents.

Weeks later, after federal agents fatally shot a second American citizen in Minneapolis, Bovino asserted that agents had fired “defensive shots,” claiming that the man, Alex Pretti, a nurse, “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

An analysis by the Times of videos of the shooting contradicted Bovino’s characterization, showing that agents had disarmed and pinned down Pretti before shooting him repeatedly from behind.

Soon after Pretti’s death, the Trump administration withdrew Bovino from Minnesota.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.