EXCLUSIVE — The Trump administration has shut down three social media accounts that recently retired Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino renamed to his personal title and had refused to return despite them being federal property, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts that had a combined audience of 850,000 people, belonging to the Border Patrol’s El Centro, California, region, were shuttered mid-Thursday after being up and running earlier in the 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 on Friday.
Five people familiar with the showdown between Bovino and the federal government over this unusual issue spoke with the Washington Examiner between January and March about the effort in Washington to take back the accounts from an employee who had gone rogue.
The battle over the social media accounts comes as the era of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem comes to a close, and it sends a message that the federal government will not cede its public relations power to a single man.
A senior official within the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the department was responsible for retaking control of the domains and did so on the first full day that Secretary Markwayne Mullin took office.
Bovino pops up on the scene
Bovino was one of 20 chief patrol agents nationwide who oversaw operations in their respective regions.
In his position, he was allowed to post pictures, videos, and text to the region’s accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and X — after senior officials at CBP headquarters approved of the post.
The accounts are government property and under CBP’s control.
In July 2025, Bovino and a large group of Border Patrol agents from the El Centro Sector set out for Los Angeles. There, they collided with activists and rioters who were protesting and attempting to interfere with federal immigration operations being carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP.
Bovino began posting updates from Los Angeles, and news from El Centro faded from the accounts’ feeds, as he took his social media and video production team based in El Centro along for the extended trip.
Bovino led agents through the streets of cities in rain, snow, and freezing temperatures. Unlike his agents, he did not wear a mask to conceal his identity from the public.
He became known for flashy social media videos that highlighted his aggressive style of going after suspected illegal immigrants, bragging on social media afterward about the work of his team.
But it sent a different message to immigrant rights groups and immigration attorneys, and even some conservatives, who saw the escalation of the use of force between last July and January, as well as the glorification of it, as concerning.
Bovino won’t back down
One source familiar with the communications between Bovino, CBP, and DHS wrote in a text message 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 role overseeing Border Patrol’s operation at large.
“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.”
On Aug. 4, Bovino posted an announcement on X stating he would rename the accounts to focus on his personal work — an unprecedented move no other chief has made.
“When Bovino took those accounts, they told him not to,” one official at DHS said in a phone call. “He said, ‘Those are my followers, so I’m taking them with me.’”
Corey Lewandowski, the 2016 presidential campaign manager for Trump, who served under Noem as a special government employee, protected Bovino from CBP’s efforts to reclaim its accounts, and Bovino refused to follow Scott’s order.
“Corey prevented the Commissioner from taking any action against Bovino, so that just empowered Bovino and his ego even more,” the third official said. “Ever wonder why [Border Patrol] put boats on the river in Chicago? Bovino was willing to make agents literal sitting ducks just for the photo op.”
El Centro creates secondary accounts
Unable to communicate about arrests and operations with the public, the El Centro Sector was permitted by CBP to create three new accounts on each platform and did so in early September.
The new El Centro Sector accounts have a combined following of 11,000 users, compared to 850,000 followers under the accounts Bovino took from the government that was shuttered on Thursday.
One official said Bovino’s decision to take over existing government accounts “damaged” the Border Patrol’s ability to communicate to the public and media about operations in southeastern California.
Eventually, officials at CBP and DHS figured they could get the accounts back, even if that meant waiting out Bovino, who had the option to retire soon.
The feds target one of their own
Bovino was sent packing from Minneapolis in January following the two fatal shootings of U.S. citizen activists, one by a CBP officer and another by an ICE employee. He returned to California before retiring in late March.
In Bovino’s final few weeks on the job this month, officials at CBP walked on tiptoes trying to get Bovino to exit without any major drama, according to three officials. Bovino had other plans.
He sat down with the New York Times, which published a lengthy story from Bovino’s perspective about his role leading Border Patrol operations through half a dozen “sanctuary” cities.
At the time of the interview, Bovino’s name and self-imposed title of commander-at-large still stood atop his trio of stolen social media accounts.
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Days later, those pages and Bovino’s documented legacy on each profile “isn’t available.”
Bovino did not respond to a request for comment prior to retirement.
