In a TV interview this summer, amid an aggressive immigration operation in Los Angeles that led to a war of words with Democratic leaders in California, U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino described himself as “apolitical” in how he does his job.
But he’s certainly not apolitical as a private citizen.
Bovino, who in recent months led similar raids in the Chicago area that could be winding down, has a history of campaign contributions benefiting Republicans, as federal election records show:
- Bovino gave President Donald Trump’s campaign $250 in 2020 during his unsuccessful run for president between his two terms.
- Another person from Bovino’s household gave Trump $104 in 2024.
- In 2020, Bovino gave $125 to the campaign fund of ex-U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, an Illinois native and Georgia Republican now serving as Trump’s Small Business Administration chief.
- The same year, Bovino gave another $125 to former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican who’s now serving as U.S. ambassador to China.
With the White House saying the region’s immigration operations are targeting undocumented immigrants who are violent criminals, and critics calling it a political ploy designed to sow chaos in Democrat-led cities, the Chicago Sun-Times examined public records to assess the political leanings of the agency at the heart of the controversy.
The findings show most rank-and-file agents with the Border Patrol, and its parent agency Customs and Border Protection, don’t give money to politicians, but of those who do, they mirror Bovino in donating disproportionately to the GOP and Trump.
Over the last two election cycles, more than 200 donors identifying as Border Patrol or Border Protection agents gave nearly 800 contributions to federal campaign funds totaling almost $30,000, according to Federal Election Commission data.
More than 500 of those contributions — or 70%, totaling over $21,000 — went to political funds directly benefiting Trump.
By contrast, campaign funds benefiting former President Joe Biden and ex-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president who lost to Trump in November, received just a dozen or so contributions from agents totaling around $650.
The rest of the total went to a smattering of Democratic and GOP candidates, plus campaign funds beyond those parties, including one benefiting Robert F. Kennedy Jr., once an independent and now a Trump aide, and to Libertarians.
Neither the Border Patrol nor White House would comment. Bovino couldn’t be reached.
No donations listed an Illinois address, though 424 came from Texas and 156 from Arizona, with those two states together sharing more than 1,600 miles of border with Mexico.
With border agents generally making middle-class wages, most of the contributions were also relatively modest, ranging from less than $1 to $500 a pop, the latter given in 2024 by an agent from San Diego.
One agent from Brackettville, Texas, made 32 campaign contributions to Republicans since the start of 2023 totaling more than $1,500, all but about $130 going to Trump, records show.
Another from Dilley, Texas, also made 32 Republican contributions totaling $1,378 with more than $300 of that going to Trump.
Of the $128,000 given over the last decade by border patrol agents and other employees, $100,000 or so went to Republican or conservative political funds, and most of that benefited Trump.
The Sun-Times’ findings are a snapshot because not everybody identifies their employment the same way when making political contributions, and not all donors make their occupations clear on disclosure paperwork.
As the Border Patrol continues to fan out across the region under orders from Trump, the FEC records provide a hint of how agents may personally align with the mission, or the underlying politics.
The National Border Patrol Council, a union representing around 18,000 Border Patrol agents and support staff, issued its first endorsement in a presidential election in 2016, backing Trump as he talked about cracking down on immigrants entering the U.S. illegally and building a border wall. The union repeated that support in 2024.
Union leader Paul Perez was among the Border Patrol agents to give to Trump last year: Nearly $50 in total in two campaign contributions.
“He’s been the strongest president in the history of the country when it comes to defending our borders and making sure that we protect Americans,” Perez said.
Asked why his agents seem to skew so heavily Republican, he said, “No way to tell, I’ve never looked at that kind of data.”