Border official who oversaw Los Angeles immigration raids arrives in Chicago as Trump widens crackdown

Source: CBS News

Updated on: September 9, 2025 / 4:16 PM EDT


The U.S. Border Patrol official who led controversial immigration enforcement raids in southern California this summer has arrived in Chicago, a new target of the Trump administration's escalating crackdown on illegal immigration, two people familiar with the matter told CBS News.

The official, Gregory Bovino, is in the Chicago area as federal officials vow to initiate a blitz of arrests in the region targeting immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Bovino was the top Border Patrol agent in California's El Centro sector until he was given command of a broader immigration enforcement campaign across the state in June.

Over the past several months, Bovino has become one of the most visible public faces of the Trump administration's aggressive effort to detain those living in the country unlawfully. He has accompanied rank-and-file agents on arrest operations and posted slickly edited videos of those sweeps on social media. In California, Bovino oversaw an effort by Customs and Border Protection, dubbed Operation At Large.

Under that operation, Border Patrol agents, whose jobs have historically been limited to preventing the illicit entry of migrants and drugs into the country, have arrested unauthorized immigrants in places far from a U.S. border, like Los Angeles and Sacramento. Bovino has personally led some of the operations, including arrests outside of Home Depot stores and a show-of-force at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles that involved mounted Border Patrol agents and armored vehicles.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-chicago-gregory-bovino-border-official-trump/