"A previously unheralded regional border patrol agent, Bovino, 55, has risen to prominence in recent weeks as the publicity-hungry spearhead of the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented people in Los Angeles. Amid howls of disapproval from elected Democratic officials, Bovino and squads of Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents have embarked on aggressive, gun-toting patrols that have netted thousands of arrests, often carried out with little more justification than that detainees are Spanish-speakers or appear to be Latino."
"Bovino, a 29-year CBP veteran who formally heads the border patrol's El Centro sector in southern California, has trumpeted the operations in a series of videos posted on social media and depicting his team's work in scenes resembling action films. Put together by a team of agents employed specially for the purpose, the productions seems tailor-made to appeal to the president's renowned taste for visual imagery."
"Now his attention-grabbing approach is set to draw further scrutiny after he arrived in Chicago this past week to lead an offensive targeting immigrants in a city Trump has labelled the most dangerous in the world. Bovino, distinguished by his spiky hairstyle that he keeps closely cropped at the sides, has also been tapped to lead a similar expected drive in Boston as part of the White House's assault on Democratic-run so-called sanctuary cities, where officials decline to cooperate with Trump's mass deportations."
Gregory Bovino, a 55-year-old, 29-year CBP veteran who formally heads the border patrol's El Centro sector, has become the public face of an escalated immigrant enforcement campaign. Squads of Customs and Border Protection agents have carried out aggressive, armed patrols in Los Angeles that have resulted in thousands of arrests, with detentions often based primarily on Spanish-speaking or Latino appearance. Operations have included masked agents breaking car windows, forcing entry to homes and horseback patrols in MacArthur Park. Bovino has promoted the operations through professionally produced social-media videos. The approach has expanded to Chicago and is expected in Boston, focused on so-called sanctuary cities and drawing political criticism.
#immigration-enforcement #customs-and-border-protection #sanctuary-cities #publicity-driven-policing
Read at www.theguardian.com
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