2026-09-05T09:00:29.500Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
格雷格·博维诺认为特朗普政府在大规模驱逐移民问题上表现软弱。无论在哪里，他都会宣扬这一观点——哪怕是在威士忌酒瓶上。
这位曾作为唐纳德·特朗普总统激进移民执法行动公开代言人的前边境巡逻队“大指挥官”，在被突然解职数月后，找到了新的角色：反移民影响力人士，向所有愿意倾听的人散播他的极端观点。他时常批评前雇主，在他看来，这些人未能兑现特朗普做出的大规模驱逐移民承诺。
博维诺曾前往欧洲与右翼政党成员就移民镇压政策展开对话，频繁做客极右翼播客以宣扬其毫不妥协的移民执法立场，正在撰写一本关于其在政府任职经历的爆料回忆录，并已安排多场面向年轻保守派的演讲活动，分享他的信念：移民正在改变这个国家的本质。
博维诺还创立了自己的威士忌品牌“指挥官之选”，目前售价99美元的酒瓶已开启预售，瓶身标签上印着：“全部驱逐。美国优先。”（他告诉CNN：“这是一款适合执法人员的绝佳饮品，而且是生酮友好型的。”）
他的出格举动已经惹恼了政府内不少人。曾授予他前所未有的权力的国土安全部，如今将他称为“心怀不满的前雇员”。
这种不满情绪是双向的。在最近接受塔克·卡尔森采访时，博维诺表示，尽管他称自己始终面临死亡威胁，但退休后安保人员还是被撤走了，这让他心怀怨恨。
“我觉得他们想让我死吗？在当下这个节点，是的。”他告诉卡尔森。
在今夏接受CNN的多轮采访以及做客播客时，博维诺既表现出受伤情绪，又充满愤怒——此前联邦执法人员在明尼阿波利斯枪杀了两名美国公民蕾妮·古德和亚历克斯·普雷蒂，之后政府就将他边缘化了。
“简而言之，我当时想做的是继续推进大规模驱逐行动，阻止移民问题给这个国家带来的种种危机，”他在最近一次采访中对CNN表示，“我看不到他们会以我认为必要的方式开展大规模驱逐行动。”
博维诺似乎很享受这种争议，对批评置之不理，坚称认为政府未兑现移民执法承诺的并非只有他一人。
他持续激怒政府内部部分人士——他不愿直接说出是谁——并表示，他已非正式地被告知停止公开抱怨。
“我说了‘不’——态度坚决得多的那种‘不’。”他说。
长期以来，博维诺以行事鲁莽、热衷于挑衅性举动和在社交媒体上引战而闻名。特朗普本人曾形容博维诺是“一个相当特立独行的人”。（博维诺说：“也许很多人觉得我特立独行，我真的不在乎。”）
但在总统的部分支持者群体中，博维诺已成为一位领袖。今年早些时候联邦官员枪杀古德和普雷蒂后，这部分支持者对政府低调的移民执法策略感到幻想破灭。他们认为，博维诺清晰地指明了他们眼中国家所需的应对之道。
保守派智库传统基金会访问学者、监督项目主席迈克·豪厄尔表示，博维诺的批评“无疑是正确的”。
“特朗普政府承诺过要大规模驱逐移民，但至今并未兑现，”豪厄尔说，“因此，在他们兑现承诺之前，这个批评阵营就会一直存在。”
“博维诺将拥有平台和公信力，直到特朗普政府真的开展大规模驱逐行动来证明他错了。所以无论是不是博维诺，都有充足的空间让其他人重拾这个议题的话语权，”豪厄尔补充道。
不过，近几个月来移民逮捕人数有所增加。据一位熟悉数据的消息人士透露，美国移民海关执法局在8月拘留了约5.1万人，移民逮捕人数持续上升，创下特朗普第二届政府时期的新高。
尽管如此，包括博维诺在内的部分移民限制主义者仍认为政府进展滞后。
他表示，那些不愿融入美国社会的移民，比罪犯或恐怖分子对国家的威胁更大。他希望暂停所有美国移民入境，期限暂定。他不仅要驱逐非法移民，还希望那些已合法居住在美国、但未融入他所定义的美国文化的人也离开。
他认为美国境内有超过1亿非法移民，这一数字远超反移民强硬派最宽泛的估算。
（皮尤研究中心估计，2023年——有全面数据的最新年份——美国非法移民人数达到创纪录的1400万。）
尽管博维诺有支持者，但一些前国土安全部官员和现任官员对他获得的关注度感到不满，大多对他持续发表的公开评论不予理会。
批评者中包括支持博维诺减少国内非法移民人口的总体目标的人，但他们对今年早些时候明尼阿波利斯等城市的行动处理方式并不满意。
“诺姆部长当时推行的是戏剧化执法策略，他曾是这项策略的代言人之一，但这种策略根本不可能持续下去，”支持减少移民的移民研究中心执行主任马克·克里科里安说。
“这损害了总统的形象，也损害了他减少非法移民人口的议程。政府未能驱逐更多非法移民的部分原因，恰恰就是博维诺曾作为代言人的那套策略破坏了公众支持驱逐非法移民的政治基础，”他补充道。
博维诺在边境巡逻队长达数十年的职业生涯于今年早些时候因一项内部调查终结。据《芝加哥论坛报》最先报道、随后发布在美国海关与边境保护局官网的政府文件显示，调查人员于3月2日就针对博维诺的“不当行为指控”约谈了他，其中包括他发表反犹太主义言论的指控。博维诺否认相关言论是有意反犹。文件还显示，他还被指控在芝加哥的一次移民行动中就事件经过撒谎，这引发了对其可信度的质疑。
博维诺于当月晚些时候退休。调查结果尚未公布。海关与边境保护局发言人表示，该机构“不会对已离职人员的人事事项置评”。
博维诺告诉《边境之鹰》杂志，他是被迫退休的，并声称海关与边境保护局的职业责任办公室将调查工具化，用来对付他。
博维诺对自己在联邦政府的任职结局心怀怨恨，认为自己原本希望推行“全方位移民执法”，但在这一愿景完全实现前就被扼杀了，而如今他正在呼吁落实这项政策。
“我们在明尼苏达州投降了，”他说，“我们没能推进下去，因为行动突然被切断了，正如你所知，非常突然，几乎没有任何解释。”
他将即将到来的中期选举视为施压政府按照他的设想加倍推进移民镇压的契机。
博维诺刻意避免直接批评总统，但表示他认为特朗普身边都是无能的官员，这些人更在意表面功夫而非实际成果，他点名批评了白宫边境事务负责人汤姆·霍曼、国土安全部部长马克韦恩·穆林和美国海关与边境保护局局长罗德尼·斯科特。
“如果我因为说出真相而伤害了某个无能的政府官僚的感情，而他们无法接受真相，那好吧，去他妈的，上帝作证，”博维诺说。
白宫发言人劳伦·比斯在一份声明中为政府的移民政策进行了广泛辩护，称已有超过300万非法移民通过驱逐或自行离境的方式离开美国。她还为霍曼进行了辩护。
“美国民众对汤姆·霍曼的工作深表赞赏，可以放心，有一位履历过硬的官员正在努力兑现总统承诺，历史性地驱逐大量非法移民，”比斯说。
国土安全部发言人表示，“心怀不满的前雇员”“有权批评本国的领导层”。
今年6月，CNN在一场新闻发布会上就博维诺对穆林领导其部门的批评向穆林提问时，这位部长直截了当地驳斥了他。
“我从未见过这个人，”穆林说，“他对我来说无关紧要。我不知道他是谁。”
回忆录与威士忌酒瓶
如今博维诺已搬回北卡罗来纳州的家乡，还经常前往田纳西州东部。他正在撰写一本自称为“关于真相、领导力与哲学的书”，接受各类采访，出席演讲活动。最近，他重访了自己曾执行行动的一处地点，引发了他与当地一名企业主的对峙。
他不仅在试图证明自己的观点，还试图从中获利。
“这一切都是为了同一个目标：我们能否让人们意识到问题所在？如果我可以用威士忌标签做到这一点，用播客做到这一点，或者走进一家面包店？”他说。
佛罗里达州廷伯克里克酿酒厂的联合创始人卡姆登·福特是博维诺这款新威士忌的生产商，他告诉CNN，他是通过博维诺的妹妹联系上对方的。“如果格雷格想做一款威士忌，我很乐意和他合作。我乐意和任何人合作，我真的不在乎他们的政治立场，”他告诉CNN，并补充说该酿酒厂为数十位客户制作私人定制标签。
两人曾讨论推出系列产品，每一款酒瓶都对应博维诺过去一年主导的一次行动。
“他或许颇具争议，但这可能正是让他的威士忌畅销的原因，”福特说。
关注度也让博维诺成为右翼演讲活动的热门嘉宾。他于8月出席了“拯救印第安纳遗产”组织举办的活动，并计划于本月晚些时候在纽约年轻共和党俱乐部发表演讲。
环球出访与着眼2028年
博维诺也在海外传播他的主张。
在葡萄牙，他接受了一家极右翼法国出版物的采访，采访中他将纳粹将军埃尔温·隆美尔，以及乔治·S·巴顿将军、联邦调查局局长J·埃德加·胡佛等美国人物，列为因所处独特环境而成为大规模运动代言人的例子。（博维诺告诉CNN，他的回答“与隆美尔本人、他的行事风格或信仰无关”，他只是为了呼应采访他的欧洲出版物才提到隆美尔。）
今年6月，博维诺在罗马尼亚的另一场会议上发表演讲，期间他发布了一张自己在“穿刺者弗拉德”墓前的照片。弗拉德是前瓦拉几亚亲王，在抵抗奥斯曼帝国入侵时手段残暴，因此获得了这个令人毛骨悚然的称号。
“他算是他们最初的边境巡逻队，”博维诺说，“他说：‘你们知道，我们受够了这些奥斯曼人进来对我们的公民为非作歹。我要采取行动解决这个问题。’显然，中世纪的情况和现在大不相同。”
今年5月，一群政治人士搭建了一个网站——附带PayPal捐赠链接——鼓励博维诺参加2028年总统竞选。博维诺表示，直到活动启动他才知晓此事，并告诉CNN，该网站收到的所有捐款他一分钱都没拿到。
但他表示，年轻的共和党人经常敦促他竞选总统，他觉得这个想法“非常、非常、非常有趣”，并称自己会保留选择权。
CNN的埃德·拉文德拉为本报道贡献了内容。
Greg Bovino was Trump’s immigration enforcer. Now he thinks the administration isn’t tough enough
2026-09-05T09:00:29.500Z / CNN
Greg Bovino thinks the Trump administration is weak on mass deportation. And he’ll share viewpoint that message anywhere he can — even on a whiskey bottle.
Months removed from his unceremonious dismissal as the public face of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration-enforcement surge, the former Border Patrol “commander-at-large” has found a new role as an anti-immigrant influencer, sharing his radical views with anyone who will listen. He regularly mixes in criticism of his former employers for what he views as their failure to live up to Trump’s mass deportation pledge.
Bovino has traveled to Europe to speak with members of right-wing parties on immigration crackdowns. He has frequented far-right podcasts to amplify his uncompromising outlook on immigration enforcement, is working on a tell-all book of his time in the administration and has lined up speaking engagements with young conservatives to share his belief that immigration is changing the fiber of this country.
Bovino has also created his own whiskey label, Commander’s Choice, with bottles available to pre-order for $99 with a label that says: “Deport them all. America first.” (“It’s a fantastic drink for law enforcement,” he told CNN. “It’s keto friendly.)
His antics have irritated more than a few people in the administration along the way. The Department of Homeland Security that once gave him unprecedented power now refers to him as a “disgruntled” former employee.
Those feelings go both ways. In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Bovino said he resents how his security detail was pulled after he retired despite the constant death threats he says he receives.
“Do I think they want me dead? At this point, yes,” he told Carlson.
In a series of interviews with CNN over the summer, and in podcast appearances, Bovino appears simultaneously hurt and furious over how the administration pushed him aside following the fatal shootings by federal law enforcement officers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens in Minneapolis.
“In a nutshell, what I wanted to do is continue the push for mass deportations and the push to save America from what’s happening here in terms of immigration,” he told CNN in a recent interview. “I don’t see those mass deportations occurring the way I think they need to go.”
Bovino appears to relish the controversy, dismissing criticism and maintaining that he’s not alone in his views that the administration is falling short of its immigration enforcement promises.
He’s continued to draw the ire of some within the administration – he won’t immediately say who — and he said he has been told, unofficially, to knock off his public airing of grievances.
“I said no — a lot more forcefully than no,” he said.
Bovino has long been known as something of a loose cannon with a penchant for provocative antics and social media trolling. Trump himself once described Bovino as “a pretty out there kind of a guy.” (“Maybe a lot of people think I’m out there,” Bovino said. “I really don’t care.”)
But to a segment of the president’s base that has become disillusioned with the administration’s more lowkey approach to immigration enforcement after the fatal shootings by federal officers of Good and Pretti earlier this year, Bovino has emerged as a leader with a clear-eyed view of what they believe is needed.
Mike Howell, a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and the president of the Oversight Project, said Bovino is “indisputably correct” in his criticisms.
“The Trump administration promised mass deportations and hasn’t delivered it yet,” Howell said. “And so, there is going to be that flank open, up until they deliver it.”
“Bovino is going to have a platform and credibility until he’s proven wrong by the Trump administration actually doing mass deportations, and so whether it’s him or anybody else, the field for somebody to reclaim the issue is wide open,” Howell added.
Immigration arrests, however, have increased over recent months. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took around 51,000 people into custody in August, according to a source familiar with the data, continuing an upward trend in immigration arrests and setting a new high under the second Trump administration.
Still, some immigration restrictionists, including Bovino, say the administration is lagging.
He says immigrants who do not integrate into American society are a bigger threat to the country than those who are criminals or terrorists. He wants a temporary moratorium on all immigration to the US. And he doesn’t just want undocumented immigrants deported – he wants those living here legally who have not assimilated into his idea of American culture to go, too.
He believes more than 100 million people are living illegally in the country, which is multitudes more than even the most expansive estimates cited by anti-immigration hardliners.
(The Pew Research Center estimated there were a record 14 million undocumented immigrants in the US in 2023 — the most recent year with comprehensive data.)
While Bovino has his supporters, some former and current Homeland Security officials are frustrated by the attention he gets and have largely dismissed the ongoing public commentary.
The critics include those who support Bovino’s overall goal of reducing the population of undocumented immigrants in the country, but who were not impressed by the way the operations were handled earlier this year in cities like Minneapolis.
“Secretary Noem was pursuing this strategy of theatrical enforcement that he was kind of the face of, and there was no way that was going to be sustainable,” said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports reduced immigration.
“It hurt the president, and it hurt his agenda of reducing the illegal population. Part of the reason the administration is not deporting as many people as it would like to see is precisely because of the strategy that Bovino was the face of, that undermined the political support for deporting illegals,” he added.
Bovino’s decades-long career with Border Patrol ended earlier this year amid an internal investigation. According to government files, which were first reported by the Chicago Tribune and posted on the Customs and Border Protection website, Bovino was contacted by investigators on March 2 regarding “allegations of misconduct,” that were reported to the agency, including allegations that he had made antisemitic comments. Bovino has denied that the comments in question were intended to be antisemitic. He was also accused of lying about events during an immigration operation in Chicago, raising questions about his credibility, according to the files.
Bovino retired later that month. The results of that investigation were unclear. A CBP spokesperson said the agency “does not comment on matters regarding personnel who are no longer with the agency.”
Bovino told Border Hawk that he was forced to retire and claimed that CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility was weaponized against him.
Bovino nurses some grudges about how his time in federal government ended, arguing that he was kneecapped from implementing the “total spectrum immigration enforcement” that he had hoped for, and which he is calling for now, before his vision could fully be realized.
“We surrendered in Minnesota,” he said. “We didn’t get there yet because it was cut off, as you know, very suddenly, and almost without explanation.”
He sees the upcoming midterm elections as a way to pressure the administration to double down on its immigration crackdown — in his vision.
Bovino is careful to avoid criticizing the president directly, but said he believes Trump is surrounded by ineffective officials who are more concerned by optics than results, citing White House border czar Tom Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott.
“If I hurt someone’s feelings – some feckless government bureaucrat – because I’m telling the truth and they can’t handle the truth, well they can kiss my ass, by God,” Bovino said.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis broadly defended the administration’s immigration policies in a statement, saying that more than 3 million undocumented immigrants have left the country either through deportation or departing on their own. She also defended Homan.
“The American people are deeply appreciative of Tom Homan’s work and can rest easy knowing someone with a proven track record is working to deliver on the President’s promise to deport a historic number of illegal aliens,” Bis said.
A DHS spokesperson said “disgruntled former employees” were “welcome to criticize their nation’s leadership.”
Asked by CNN at a press conference in June about Bovino’s criticisms over Mullin’s leadership of his agency, the secretary tersely dismissed him.
“I’ve never met the guy,” Mullin said. “He’s irrelevant to me. I don’t know who he is.”
A book and a whiskey bottle
Bovino has since moved back to his home state of North Carolina and frequently visits east Tennessee. He’s writing a book that he describes as a “book of truth, leadership, and philosophy,” beaming into interviews and fielding speaking engagements. Recently, he revisited one of the locations of his operations, leading to a confrontation between him and a local business owner.
He’s trying to prove a point. And also trying to monetize it.
“It’s all toward the same end. Are we going to bring attention to what the problem is? If I can use a whiskey label to do that, if I can use the podcast to do that, if I can go to a bakery?” he said.
Camden Ford, co-owner of Timber Creek Distillery based in Florida and maker of Bovino’s new whiskey, told CNN he connected with him by way of Bovino’s sister. “I’m happy to work with Greg if he wants to do a whiskey. I’m happy to work with anybody. I don’t really care about their politics,” he told CNN, adding that the distillery works with dozens of customers on private labels.
The two have discussed a series that would include a bottle for each of the operations Bovino led over the last year.
“He may be controversial, but it may be the thing that sells his whiskey for him,” Ford said.
The attention is also making Bovino a draw to the right-wing speaking circuit. He appeared at an event hosted by the group Save Heritage Indiana in August and is scheduled to appear before the New York Young Republicans Club later this month.
Globe-trotting and eyeing 2028
Bovino is also spreading his message abroad.
In Portugal, he gave an interview with a far-right French publication in which he cited Nazi General Erwin Rommel, along with American figures like Gen. George S. Patton and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, as people who became the faces of large movements because of the unique set of circumstances they faced. (Bovino told CNN his answer had “nothing to do with Rommel, his style [or] his beliefs” and that he only brought him up to relate to the European publication that interviewed him.)
In June, Bovino spoke at another conference in Romania, where he posted a picture of himself in front of the tomb of Vlad the Impaler, the former Wallachian prince whose bloodthirsty methods while resisting an Ottoman invasion gave him his gruesome name.
“He was sort of their original Border Patrol,” Bovino said. “He said, ‘You know, we’ve had enough of these Ottomans coming in and doing terrible things to our citizens. I’m going to try to do something about it.’ And obviously, back in the medieval times, things are a little different than they are now.”
In May, a group of political operatives set up a website — along with a PayPal donation link — encouraging Bovino to mount a presidential campaign in 2028. Bovino said he was unaware of that specific effort until it began and told CNN that he hasn’t seen a penny of any of the donations made on that website.
But he said young Republicans frequently ask him to run for president, that he finds the idea “very, very, very interesting” and that he is keeping his options open.
CNN’s Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.