‘Ground is clearly shifting’ against Trump as Americans rise up in Minneapolis, Pete Buttigieg says

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday said public pressure is beginning to force accountability inside the Trump administration after the Border Patrol chief overseeing Minnesota immigration operations was pushed out following the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis this month.

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In a video posted to social media shortly after reports surfaced that the White House was replacing Greg Bovino, a senior Customs and Border Protection commander, with White House border czar Tom Homan, Buttigieg described the move as evidence that sustained protest and political organizing are beginning to shift the balance of power in Washington.

“For the millions of Americans who have been making your voice heard, I want to recognize just how much of an impact that that’s having,” Buttigieg said in the video, which he recorded amid national outrage over the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota by federal agents on Saturday.

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Bovino had been leading Border Patrol and DHS immigration operations in Minneapolis, which have come under intense scrutiny after two fatal encounters involving American citizens this month.

On January 7, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed a queer mother of three, Renee Nicole Good, as she was trying to drive her SUV away from him. Civil rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers have called for investigations, accountability, and an immediate halt to federal immigration enforcement activity in the region.

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On Saturday, several Border Patrol agents pinned Pretti, who had been filming them with his cell phone, to the ground after the VA ICU nurse attempted to help a woman that a federal agent had knocked to the icy ground. After pepper-spraying him, agents dragged him to the ground, took a gun he legally had in a waist holster from him, and then shot him multiple times.

Senior members of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have lied about the victims of both shootings, falsely casting them as domestic terrorists.

Without naming Bovino directly, Buttigieg pointed to the commander’s removal as a direct result of mounting political pressure. “A top commander of Customs and Border Patrol has just been sidelined,” he said, arguing that the development shows “you don’t have to wait until Election Day” to force change.

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Buttigieg said the moment reflects a broader shift, including signs of unease among Republicans who have largely defended the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. He noted that some GOP lawmakers have begun calling for hearings and investigations into the administration’s conduct, a notable departure from recent months.

“Congressional Republicans have begun changing their behavior,” Buttigieg said, adding that even President Donald Trump appeared to be “showing signs of doing the one thing he claims he’ll never do, which is back down.”

At the same time, Buttigieg warned against overstating the significance of a single personnel change. “There is a very, very long way to go,” he said, noting that “fearsome and grotesque abuses are continuing even as we speak” and that accountability remains scarce.

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Buttigieg said the development fits into a broader pattern of movement, one he described as unmistakable. “The ground is clearly shifting because all of us together have been doing the work of shifting it,” he said, crediting protests, calls to lawmakers, and public advocacy with producing “an accelerating change in the power dynamics of this country.”

He used the moment as a reminder that hope follows action, not the other way around. “Hope can be the consequence of action, not just its cause,” Buttigieg said.

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Buttigieg closed with a blunt call to persist, arguing that officials involved in controversial enforcement actions ultimately understand they may be held to account. “Many of them know that what they’re part of is wrong,” he said, warning that once that fear sets in, “this house of cards will fall.”

“We don’t have much time to lose,” Buttigieg added. “So for God’s sake, let’s keep it up.”