Border Patrol Leader Accused of Mocking Jewish Prosecutor’s Shabbos Observance

Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official overseeing deportation operations in Minnesota, is accused of making antisemitic remarks toward Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, reportedly targeting Rosen’s observance of Shabbos. The New York Times reported that during a January 12 call with federal prosecutors, Bovino made derisive comments about Rosen’s religious practices.

The report states that Bovino cynically used the phrase “the chosen people” and sarcastically questioned whether Rosen understood that Orthodox Jewish criminals do not take weekends off, referring to the prosecutor’s adherence to avoiding phone and email use during Shabbos.

Bovino, a longtime immigration enforcement official, recently arrived in Minneapolis to lead a task force of 3,000 federal agents. He has faced a wave of criticism for repeatedly appearing in public wearing a green, military-style coat with silver buttons; an officially sanctioned Border Patrol winter uniform, but one that has drawn widespread online comparisons to Nazi-era attire.

Tensions escalated further after Bovino was recorded firing a tear gas canister without warning during a protest in Chicago. He was also admonished by a federal judge in Illinois for allegedly giving false accounts of his officers’ arrest methods.

Scrutiny of Bovino sharpened in the wake of the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a Minneapolis veterans’ hospital. Bovino asserted that Pretti carried out an “attempted massacre of law enforcement” and was armed with a handgun and two magazines, but video footage appeared to contradict this, showing agents restraining, disarming, and then shooting Pretti multiple times in the back. The incident marked the second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minnesota since the heightened enforcement campaign began following the killing of protester Renee Good.

The remarks about Rosen surfaced during a call in which Bovino pressed the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring charges against protesters accused of hindering his agents. Rosen was not on the call – his deputy attended instead – leading Bovino to express frustration at not being able to reach him over the weekend and suggesting that Rosen’s religious commitments were getting in the way of law enforcement operations.

The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring prosecutors to turn over evidence that could call into question the credibility of government witnesses, including federal officers.