"The Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino posted a video over the weekend showing a pep talk he'd given in Chicago to agents operating far from their usual stations along the Mexico border. Set to a rock anthem by the band Chicago, it was the kind of swaggering, trollish clip that has made him the star of the Trump administration's mass-deportation campaign."
"When President Donald Trump ran for office in 2024, his campaign wanted voters to tie the problems in their communities and personal lives to the chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump's surrogates adopted a talking point long used by Homeland Security officials when they wanted more attention and funding from Congress. "Every state is a border state," they'd say, meaning that problems generated at the border-illegal migration and drug trafficking-don't stay there."
"It should come as little surprise, then, that Trump and Stephen Miller, who oversees the administration's mass-deportation campaign, have turned the U.S. Border Patrol inward, deploying its green-uniformed agents to cities and states around the country. During the Biden administration, when the number of illegal crossings soared to an all-time high-roughly 2 million a year-the Border Patrol was so overwhelmed that it turned to other federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for help."
Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino posted a video of a Chicago pep talk to agents operating far from the Mexico border, using confrontational language and patriotic swagger. Agents conducted raids in Charlotte, North Carolina, arresting about 130 people and labeling the operation "Charlotte's Web." The 2024 Trump campaign and officials promoted the idea that every state experiences border-related problems to link local issues to border policy. Stephen Miller oversees a mass-deportation campaign that has deployed green-uniformed agents nationwide. Record crossings during the Biden administration strained Border Patrol, but current policies and asylum restrictions have driven crossings down while expanding domestic enforcement.
Read at The Atlantic
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