The Trump administration shut down three social media accounts belonging to the Border Patrol's El Centro, California, sector after recently retired Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino renamed them to reflect his personal title and refused to return them, despite their status as federal property.
Newsmax reported that the accounts, spanning Facebook, Instagram, and X, carried a combined following of 850,000. They were taken offline mid-Thursday, on the first full day in office for new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
A CBP spokesperson confirmed the action plainly:
"Chief Patrol Agent Bovino has retired from federal service and no longer has access to official government social media accounts."
A senior department official added that the department acted to reclaim control of its communications platforms as former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's tenure ended.
The dispute was not sudden. It had been simmering for months. Bovino oversaw one of 20 Border Patrol sectors nationwide, but he treated the government-owned pages as his own.
In July 2025, Bovino led agents from El Centro to Los Angeles during protests over federal immigration enforcement. He shifted the accounts' focus to those operations and later traveled with a video team to other cities. On August 4, 2025, he announced he would rename the pages to highlight his personal role.
CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott ordered Bovino to restore the original sector names and create new accounts for Bovino's broader duties. Bovino refused, contending the followers belonged to him.
Think about that for a moment. A federal employee built an audience on government-owned platforms, using government resources and a government title, then claimed the audience was his personal property.
The El Centro sector responded by launching replacement accounts in early September 2025. Those replacement accounts managed to attract just 11,000 followers combined, a fraction of the 850,000 Bovino was sitting on.
The obvious question is why it took this long. According to people briefed on internal communications, Corey Lewandowski, then serving as a special government employee under Noem, allegedly shielded Bovino from disciplinary steps. That detail raises its own set of questions about the chain of command under Noem's DHS and how a sector-level agent managed to defy a direct order from the CBP Commissioner for months without consequence.
Whatever the internal dynamics were, the new leadership moved quickly. Mullin's first full day brought the hammer down.
Bovino's story is a case study in something conservatives should care about deeply: individual actors inside the federal bureaucracy treating public resources as personal fiefdoms.
It doesn't matter that Bovino was a Border Patrol agent doing visible, popular work on immigration enforcement. The principle is the same one conservatives invoke when criticizing any government official who confuses a public role with a personal brand.
Government social media accounts belong to the government. The followers were built through official operations, official branding, and official content. The idea that any federal employee, no matter how effective or popular, gets to walk away with 850,000 followers on taxpayer-funded platforms is not a gray area. It's straightforward.
Bovino's final weeks in government told the story clearly enough. He was reassigned from a high-profile operation in Minneapolis in January after two fatal shootings involving federal officers.
He returned to California, retired in late March, and sat for a New York Times interview on his way out the door. None of that is the behavior of someone trying to quietly serve and move on.
Conservatives rightly demand accountability from entrenched bureaucrats who resist elected leadership. That principle doesn't come with an exemption for people who happen to work on issues we care about. Border security is a top priority.
The agents doing the work deserve respect and support. But no individual agent is bigger than the institution, and no one gets to pocket government assets on the way to retirement.
The new DHS leadership did what should have been done months ago. That it wasn't done sooner is its own indictment.
