(José Niño, Headline USA) The Trump administration terminated three social media accounts that recently retired Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino had converted to his personal brand and declined to relinquish despite them being government property, the Washington Examiner reported.
Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts tied to the Border Patrol’s El Centro, California sector with a combined following of 850,000 users were closed down mid Thursday after functioning earlier that day, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“Chief Patrol Agent Bovino has retired from federal service and no longer has access to official government social media accounts,” a CBP spokesperson wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official verified that the department reclaimed the accounts on the first full day that Secretary Markwayne Mullin took charge.
Bovino was one of 20 chief patrol agents across the country who directed operations in their assigned regions. His role permitted him to upload pictures, videos, and text to the region’s accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and X once senior officials at CBP headquarters gave their approval.
The dispute originated in July 2025 when Bovino took a sizable contingent of Border Patrol agents from the El Centro Sector to Los Angeles, where they clashed with activists and rioters demonstrating against federal immigration operations. Bovino started sharing updates from Los Angeles while content about El Centro vanished from the accounts’ feeds.
He gained recognition for eye-catching social media videos showcasing his confrontational style in capturing suspected illegal aliens and boasting about his team’s accomplishments. The spectacles alarmed immigrant rights organizations, immigration lawyers, and even some conservatives who found the growing use of force and its celebration disturbing.
One source with knowledge of exchanges between Bovino, CBP, and DHS wrote that CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott “gave Bovino a direct order to return the pages/accounts names to reflect El Centro Sector and that new accounts would be created” for Bovino in his broader role.
“Bovino refused, arguing that the followers were his, he said he earned the followers and that his followers expected him to post from new cities,” the same person said. “It was all about Greg Bovino getting attention and nothing else.”
A separate DHS official recalled that “When Bovino took those accounts, they told him not to. He said, ‘Those are my followers, so I’m taking them with me.'”
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager who worked under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as a special government employee, shielded Bovino from CBP’s attempts to recover its accounts.
“Corey prevented the Commissioner from taking any action against Bovino, so that just empowered Bovino and his ego even more,” a third official said.
Left without a way to inform the public about arrests and operations, the El Centro Sector launched three new accounts on each platform in early September. Those new accounts have accumulated just 11,000 followers compared to the 850,000 following Bovino commandeered.
Bovino was removed from Minneapolis in January after two fatal shootings of U.S. citizen activists by federal officers. He went back to California before retiring in late March.
During his last weeks, Bovino spoke with the New York Times, which published an extensive account from his viewpoint about directing Border Patrol operations across half a dozen “sanctuary” cities. At the time of the interview, Bovino’s name and his self designated title of commander at large still sat atop his trio of appropriated social media accounts.
Days afterward, those pages and Bovino’s recorded history on each profile had disappeared.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
