'Certainly not accidental': Smirking border chief's presence at tense protest questioned

A national security correspondent questioned the presence of President Donald Trump's border chief on the front lines of a tense protest in Minneapolis.

Thousands gathered Thursday morning, less than a day after an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year American citizen Renee Good during a raid, and Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino smiled and laughed with federal agents as tensions flared outside a federal facility.

"What we're seeing hereis certainly not accidental," said CNN's Josh Campbell, "because so much of thisimmigration enforcement effortthat we've seen across thecountry has largely been aboutmessaging, public messaging,getting imagery out there, and Ihave to say, I mean, you know,from the perspective of a lawenforcement leader, it could behim wanting to come out thereand try to, you know, buck uphis own troops, which leadersoften do to say, 'Look, I'mgoing to come out, you know,thank you for what you're doing.'So that's one aspect."

"Butclearly there is a publicmessaging aspect because he'sbeen there for so long, justkind of waiting around at times,looking back into the crowd, and, you know, one thing thatwe've noted throughout ourcoverage, especially when we'vetalked about excessive use offorce incidents that werequestionable, as you mentioned, there's always a bigquestion about de-escalation," Campbell added. "Isthis something that you want totry to, you know, bring downtemperature, the temperaturewith the public, particularly ina volatile situation where youhave someone who's been shotand killed by law enforcement.This is somewhat of theopposite."

Campbell also noted that President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, among other high-ranking officials, have clearly signaled to agents on the street that they would justify almost any use of force during immigration enforcement.

"Overthe course of the last fewmonths, we've seen the Department of Homeland Securityleadership and the Department of Justice come out to quicklyexonerate agents," Campbell said. "In the wordsof one law enforcement sourcethat I talked to who works at afederal agency, they said thisis essentially sending a signalto ICE and some of these otheragents that they're essentiallyuntouchable, because if your ownleadership is coming out quicklyand saying you did everythingabsolutely right, not waitingfor a robust investigation, youhave to wonder what that will doto the psyche of these agents asthey're out there trying todecide, shoot or don't shoot. Ifyou already know that, at leastif past is prologue, there hasn'tbeen a lot of accountability."

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