Gregory Bovino took Chicago by storm this fall when he led the U.S. Border Patrol through the streets during the mass-deportation campaign dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” During that time federal agents shot two people and arrested thousands.
Bovino frequently posted slick Hollywood style videos of these aggressive enforcement operations, often portraying himself as a hero who’d come to save the city from dangerous immigrants.
He is fond of photo ops and never wears a mask.
Yet if you try to look up even the most basic information about Bovino’s life, it’s nearly impossible to find anything personal about him, his family or the experiences that led him to become the Border Patrol leader he is.
So we sent a team digging. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Lauren FitzPatrick went to Bovino’s hometown in North Carolina. WBEZ’s Dan Mihalopoulos went to Southern California, where Bovino got his start in the Border Patrol.
In “Becoming Bovino,” they talk with WBEZ’s Patrick Smith about what they learned about Bovino’s upbringing and his seemingly overnight rise to prominence.
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As a boy, the Hollywood movie “The Border” set the course for his life. He couldn’t believe the Border Patrol agents in the movie were the bad guys. Now that he’s in charge of deportation efforts causing turmoil in Chicago and elsewhere, he sees himself as the good guy. Not everyone agrees.
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