WASHINGTON — A revealing new investigation by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop (IRW) exposes how a senior Border Patrol official, Gregory Bovino, has led agents who use force against civilians at rates far higher than the rest of the agency.
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POGO’s full report — which you can read here — offers the clearest, data-backed look yet at a pattern of violence under Bovino, the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector Chief and one of the top tactical leaders behind the Department of Homeland Security’s immigrant raids in Chicago and Los Angeles.
What the Data Shows
Over the last four fiscal years, agents under Bovino’s command used force 3.6 times more often than they were assaulted. That’s the highest ratio in the country, according to DHS data analyzed by POGO and IRW.
Across the Border Patrol overall, use-of-force incidents exceed assaults by about a 2-to-1 ratio. But in Bovino’s El Centro Sector, incidents of force per assault reach more than 4-to-1 when measured by the number of individual agents involved — double the agency-wide average.
The numbers cover fiscal years 2022 through 2025, when El Centro recorded 300 use-of-force cases versus 83 assaults. No other Border Patrol sector came close.
“A Culture of Escalation”
Researchers say the findings paint a picture of a command culture prone to escalation…