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‘We Are Not Letting Up’: Advocates Say Much More Work to Do as Bovino Exits Minnesota
The ACLU said it plans to keep up the pressure and won’t stop “until ICE and CBP stop terrorizing our community.”
Jan 27, 2026
Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino has reportedly been pushed out of his role leading President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign amid a torrent of backlash against immigration agents' lawless behavior in Minnesota in recent weeks, particularly the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis this month.
The Atlantic, which was the first to report Bovino's departure, describes it as one of the first times that a White House prone to quadrupling down on even its most outrageous excesses has buckled in the face of public outrage, with Trump reportedly mulling "a tactical shift in the administration’s mass deportation campaign."
This has not only led to Bovino—who baselessly claimed Pretti intended to "massacre law enforcement"—being demoted and sent to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire. Some of the administration's other, more aggressive anti-immigrant zealots, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her de facto chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski, are also reportedly on the hot seat.
"To be clear, this is a victory, which was won by ordinary people putting their lives on the line in the streets of Minneapolis while almost all their elected leaders kept quiet or made only muted criticism," said Jeet Heer, a writer for the Nation.
But the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has been at the forefront of legal resistance to the Trump administration's attacks on civil rights, warned on Monday evening that while ousting the face of the operation represented "progress," it must not breed complacency.
A spokesperson for the group noted in a video posted to social media that Bovino's demotion came shortly after the announcement that some Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were being withdrawn from Minneapolis "as a result of public pushback," in response to its and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) tactics.
"These are clear signals that the Trump administration is feeling our pressure," they said. "This is progress, but we are not letting up until ICE and CBP stop terrorizing our community."
"Part of how we achieve this is by telling our senators to vote no this week on a bill that would continue funding ICE without doing anything to keep our community safe," they continued.
Ezra Levin, the co-director of the progressive advocacy group Indivisible, said that the exit of Bovino shows that "the people of Minnesota won and the regime is losing."
However, he said that while "we are all happy to say good riddance to Greg Bovino... our work is still not over."
"This was never about one individual," Levin said. "It is about a system of terror driven by Donald Trump and his regime. The people on the streets are doing their part, but it is up to Democrats to hold the line and follow through. The DHS funding bill cannot pass in its current form, and there must be real constraints and accountability for DHS moving forward."
After Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, was gunned down this past weekend by a band of federal agents—whose identities the Trump administration has still refused to release to the public and has allowed to remain on duty—Democratic lawmakers have largely stated their intention to block a bill that would fund the government after a January 30 deadline.
That bill—which narrowly passed the House last week with seven Democrats in support after party leadership refused to whip votes against the measure—provides another $64.4 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including another $10 billion for ICE. This is on top of the $170 billion in new DHS funding approved last summer when Congress passed Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Zeteo reports that as of Monday, 44 Democrats have stated their intention to vote against the bill. With seven Democrats needed to vote for the legislation in addition to all 53 Republicans, this is enough for it to be blocked. According to the report:
Senate Democrats appear to have coalesced around several demands for cleaning up ICE. While the exact language isn’t final, Democrats are prepared to demand the following, according to the [American] Prospect: an independent, federal-state investigation of the murders by DHS in Minnesota and agents’ tactics; a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks; a requirement that ICE agents wear body cameras; an end to arrest quotas and agents’ roving patrols, where they racially profile people; and a prohibition on agents illegally and unconstitutionally entering people’s homes based on “administrative warrants” that haven’t been signed by an actual judge.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), America's largest federal workers union, of which Pretti was a member, said that other Trump administration officials who smeared his name in order to defend his killing must also face accountability.
“In the immediate aftermath of Alex’s killing, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem betrayed the public trust by slandering the good name of our union brother and calling him a 'domestic terrorist,'" said AFGE national president Everett Kelley. "Alex Pretti was a patriotic ICU nurse at a [Department of Veterans Affairs] hospital who devoted his life to serving America’s veterans. That claim was reckless, defamatory, and unsupported by the facts. Noem was preceded in this false statement by Stephen Miller, Deputy White House Chief of Staff, who is also the architect of the chaotic and failed immigration policy in Minnesota."
"Our demand is clear: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was responsible for carrying out the policy that led to Alex’s needless killing, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of that policy, must resign immediately," Kelley continued. "If they refuse, President Trump must dismiss them."
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Union Fury After Trump Suggests Not All Furloughed Workers Will Receive Shutdown Pay
"The livelihoods of the patriotic Americans serving their country in the federal government are not bargaining chips in a political game," said the president of the country's largest union of federal employees.
Oct 07, 2025
The American labor movement erupted in outrage Tuesday after President Donald Trump appeared to go back on the government's promises to provide back pay to all of the estimated 750,000 furloughed federal workers when the government shutdown ends.
Last month, as a shutdown loomed, the US Office of Personnel Management, an independent government agency that oversees the country's civil service, published guidance for federal agencies stating definitively that "after the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were furloughed as a result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough periods."
This follows a federal law, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act signed by Trump during the last shutdown in 2019, which requires that furloughed employees "shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations.”
But the Trump administration has begun to walk back that promise. A memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) obtained by Axios on Tuesday stated that the administration's position was that employees were not all entitled to back pay, and that the money would have to be specifically appropriated by Congress.
"Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn't," a senior White House official said, adding that despite what guidance other agencies may have given, "OMB is in charge."
When asked by reporters Tuesday if furloughed employees would all be paid, Trump seemed to confirm the OMB position, saying that "it depends on who we’re talking about.”
“For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people," he said. “There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way."
When asked why some workers would not get back pay, Trump told reporters to “ask the Democrats that question.”
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing over 820,000 federal workers, argued that by denying back pay to furloughed employees, the Trump administration was contradicting both the law and its own assurances to employees.
“The frivolous argument that federal employees are not guaranteed backpay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is an obvious misinterpretation of the law," said Everett Kelley, the AFGE's national president. "It is also inconsistent with the Trump administration’s own guidance from mere days ago, which clearly and correctly states that furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay for the time they were out of work as quickly as possible once the shutdown is over."
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the chamber's Appropriations Committee, said on social media that the White House memo was “another baseless attempt to try and scare and intimidate workers by an administration run by crooks and cowards."
“The letter of the law is as plain as can be," Murray said. "Federal workers, including furloughed workers, are entitled to their back pay following a shutdown."
The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), which represents about 110,000 employees, also chimed in with outrage over the decision by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to send members of Congress home last week as shutdown negotiations stalled. Johnson has maintained that he will not negotiate on Democrats' demands to reverse cuts to a critical health insurance subsidy unless they agree to fund the government first.
"Congressional leaders should come back to Washington to negotiate an end to this shutdown immediately. Federal employees, our men and women in uniform, and the American people are all suffering. Skipping town in the middle of a crisis is unconscionable," said NFFE's national president Randy Erwin. "At this point, House Republicans have refused any meaningful negotiations. It appears to me that Speaker Johnson and his colleagues have no intention of ending this shutdown anytime soon. It seems they would rather sit back and play the blame game than undertake the necessary work to pass bipartisan spending legislation."
Last week, Trump suggested that, alongside OMB Director Russell Vought, he would use the government shutdown to set about "laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and they’re Democrats. They’re gonna be Democrats.”
Trump added Tuesday that if the shutdown continues much longer, many government jobs would be on the chopping block “in four or five days" and that "a lot of those jobs will never come back."
On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Johnson has described the potential layoffs of thousands of workers as "regrettable," adding that it was "not a job that [Vought] relishes... But he’s being required to do it by [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer (D-NY).”
On Thursday, however, Trump had described the shutdown as an “unprecedented opportunity” to carry out Vought's proposals for cuts to programs and employees across federal agencies.
"The livelihoods of the patriotic Americans serving their country in the federal government are not bargaining chips in a political game," Kelley said. "It’s long past time for these attacks on federal employees to stop and for Congress to come together, resolve their differences, and end this shutdown."
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Trump's Attack on EPA Workers Is an Attack on You
Silencing our union members, working on the front line of environmental protection, is beyond dangerous. It strips away a critical check against political interference in science. And that can only mean more threats on the horizon to the air you breathe and the water you drink.
Sep 01, 2025
Labor Day is a time to honor the workers who keep our country safe, strong and healthy. But this year, while families fire up their grills and celebrate the dignity of work, the Trump administration is continuing its brazen assault against the very workers who protect the air you breathe and the water you drink.
On August 8th, the Trump administration issued an executive order banning AFGE Council 238, our union representing more than 8,000 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers nationwide. The executive order categorized the EPA as a “national security” agency, an absurd and illegal misrepresentation of EPA’s historic mission to protect human health and the environment.
We are under no illusions: this move has nothing to do with national security. This action was about silencing the scientists and staff at the EPA and clearing the way for corporate polluters to have free rein.
This Labor Day, don’t just thank workers. Stand with EPA workers and make your voice heard too. Because protecting our rights is protecting your right to clean air and safe drinking water.
Here’s why banning our union matters. First, it means that science is on the chopping block. Practicing sound science is critical to protecting human health, and EPA scientists are your first line of defense against toxic chemicals, smog and hazardous waste.
For years, our union fought to secure ‘scientific integrity’ protections into our union contract so scientists wouldn’t be punished for telling the truth. Last summer, this became a reality in our most recent contract, which prohibited retaliation against EPA scientists who follow sound scientific principles.
The fight solidified the importance of sound science to EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment, and it underscored our union’s role as one of the public’s strongest safeguards against political infringement on EPA’s work to protect clean water and air.
Now, with Trump illegally terminating our contract, that safeguard protecting EPA’s scientific integrity is gone. Trump’s political appointees and corporate lobbyists will have a freer hand to rewrite science and weaken safeguards against environmental hazards like air pollution, toxic chemicals, and hazardous waste.
Second, it means transparency at the agency is out the window. Our union no longer has the protections to hold the agency accountable to its mission to protect your air, your land and your water.
In 2019, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency tried to hide flaws in a very controversial water permit proposal submitted by PolyMet Mining by asking that they not be documented and instead have EPA merely read the critical information over the phone. Our union blew the whistle and released communications showing that the two agencies colluded to keep the critical comments away from the public. After our union’s disclosure, MPCA’s permit action was overturned, thereby protecting the St. Louis River and Lake Superior.
Without our union, that cover-up might never have seen the light of day.
That is why silencing our union is so dangerous. It strips away a critical check against political interference in science. And that can only mean more threats on the horizon to the air you breathe and the water you drink.
That’s why federal unions, including ours, are actively working to push Congress to pass H.R. 2550, the Protect America's Workforce Act. This bill would restore collective bargaining rights and stop Trump’s illegal executive order in its tracks. As Congress returns from recess on September 2, we need your voice too: call or email your representatives, demand they support the bill and that they sign a discharge petition to bring the bill to the House floor.
This Labor Day, don’t just thank workers. Stand with EPA workers and make your voice heard too. Because protecting our rights is protecting your right to clean air and safe drinking water.
AFGE Council 238 will continue to fight the Trump administration’s illegal executive order. We will not be silenced, and we won’t stop defending the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the planet we all call home.
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