By Priscilla Alvarez, Kristen Holmes, Kaitlan Collins, Michael Williams

(CNN) — Top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and some of his agents are expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday and return to their respective sectors, according to three sources familiar the discussions, sidelining a key player in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The move comes after President Donald Trump announced he was dispatching White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis in the wake of Saturday’s fatal shooting of a US citizen. The White House has said Homan is expected to manage Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city. One official said it was a “mutual decision” to have Bovino depart. Some Border Patrol agents are expected to remain in the city, sources said.

CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Border Patrol, for comment.

Administration officials were left deeply frustrated this weekend over how Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem handled the fallout over the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, sources said. According to one official, Trump spent several hours Sunday and Monday watching news coverage and was unhappy by how his administration was coming across. CNN previously reported that Noem was in touch with the White House throughout the day Saturday.

Others say that Bovino, who became the face of Trump’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, made matters worse by claiming Pretti intended to “massacre” federal agents. He sat for an interview with CNN and held a news conference Sunday, but neither appearance tamped down criticism of the administration’s response and contradictions, officials told CNN.

Senior officials began discussing taking Bovino out of Minnesota on Sunday afternoon, according to one senior official.

Aides were also irked after Noem labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and accused him of brandishing his legally owned firearm, a claim that wasn’t backed up by video evidence.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced the White House from the domestic terrorist label during Monday’s briefing, arguing it was not a position Trump himself has personally taken. She did not say specifically that Bovino was departing Minnesota, but she said Homan would be the “main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis” and that Bovino would “continue to lead” agency operations nationwide.

Making Homan the administration’s point person in Minneapolis is also seen as a slight to Noem, who has been engaged in a power struggle with the border czar for months. After Homan’s new assignment was announced, a White House official sought to make clear that Noem still has Trump’s confidence and trust.

Bovino was nearly three decades into his career with Border Patrol when he was plucked last year from his position as chief patrol agent of the agency’s El Centro sector in Southern California to lead the highly visible mass deployments of federal law enforcement in cities including Los Angeles; Chicago; Charlotte, North Carolina; and New Orleans.

In each of those cities, the aggressive tactics of officers under Bovino’s command drew criticism from local officials, who alleged they were being used by the president as a cudgel against primarily Democratic-led localities. His heavy-handed tactics, including immigration sweeps in parking lots and smashing car windows, had fueled consternation among some in the Trump administration, including within his own agency, for weeks — and grew more contentious in the wake of Saturday’s deadly shooting.

Bovino and his officers would often participate in highly choreographed and publicized shows of force. And Bovino stood out as the only officer who did not cover his face as they descended on gas stations and Home Depot and Target stores.

In Chicago, he was reprimanded by a federal judge who found his account of being hit in the head with a rock before deploying tear gas was not credible.

“Video evidence ultimately disproved this,” said Judge Sara Ellis, who was presiding over a case concerning the heavy-handed tactics used by federal agents in Chicago.

“Defendant Bovino admitted that he lied,” she said.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.