U.S. Customs and Border Protection has opened an internal investigation into whether Gregory Bovino, the one-time architect of President Donald Trump’s large-scale immigration crackdown, made disparaging comments about the Jewish faith of the U.S. attorney for Minnesota.
“Following a letter from a Congressman inquiring about reporting on anonymous allegations, CBP opened an internal inquiry to determine the full story,” a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “This is standard procedure and does NOT indicate any confirmation of wrongdoing.”
Customs and Border Protection is part of Homeland Security.
The investigation comes after The New York Times and then CBS News reported on remarks Bovino allegedly made during a Jan. 12 phone call held to coordinate a Saturday meeting to discuss the deployment of immigration agents in the Minneapolis area.
During the call, the reports said, Bovino allegedly complained that Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel N. Rosen was unreachable for part of the weekend because of the Sabbath, which in Judaism is observed from sunset Friday to nightfall Saturday.
Bovino allegedly used the term “chosen people” in a disparaging way and asked, in a sarcastic tone, whether Rosen understood that some Orthodox Jewish people don’t take the Sabbath off work, the reports said.
“Do Orthodox criminals also take off on Saturday?” he asked, according to CBS.
The Times reported Rosen delegated the call to a deputy and that he himself was not part of the conversation.
The Times first reported on the investigation. It said an investigator with Customs and Border Protection’s office of professional responsibility wrote in an email that he had opened an “official inquiry into the allegation” that Bovino made “unprofessional comments.”
Bovino was the public face of the Trump administration’s city-by-city immigration sweeps until late January. The Border Patrol chief led agents in Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans before he headed to Minnesota in December for what Homeland Security called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation.
The administration removed Bovino from his leading role after federal officers in Minneapolis fatally shot 37-year-old mother Renee Good and 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti on different days, leading to nationwide demonstrations and criticisms of Homeland Security’s use-of-force policies.
On Monday, a Minnesota prosecutor said her office would investigate Bovino and other federal officers for misconduct. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said she would look into an instance in which Bovino threw a smoke canister at protesters on Jan. 21. Homeland Security said in a statement that states cannot prosecute federal officers.
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This story has been corrected to show Department of Homeland Security emailed a statement on Wednesday, not Tuesday.
