U.S. Border Patrol staged politically motivated show of force at Gov. Newsom's press conference

On August 14, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol agents massed outside the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles as Gov. Gavin Newsom prepared to announce California's response to President Trump's redistricting push. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino led the operation, arriving in Little Tokyo flanked by agents in helmets, camouflage, masks, and guns; when a reporter noted that Newsom was nearby, Bovino said he did not know where the governor was. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said at the time that agents were "focused on enforcing the law, not on [Newsom]."

Federal court filings unsealed in July 2026 — exhibits submitted in an American Civil Liberties Union motion for a preliminary injunction against Border Patrol's Los Angeles-area enforcement stops — contradicted that denial. A Homeland Security Investigations agent testified under oath and texted a colleague that the operation was "purely political" and a "stunt" targeting Newsom, writing that the team had been "pulled off" other assignments "to run this stunt" and that "we're told to assist with targeted enforcement... that is not targeted enforcement." The agent called it "just a political agenda."

Gov. Newsom's office said the disclosures confirmed what he had said from the outset: that the operation outside his event was "a targeted stunt driven by politics," not a public-safety action. Newsom said federal employees had "put it in writing" that they were ordered to target a political rally, calling the operation "an abuse of power."

Deploying federal immigration-enforcement agents to stage a show of force at a sitting governor's public event, while agency leadership publicly denied doing so, used government power to intimidate a political critic under cover of a facially neutral law-enforcement operation.