Striking workers in Chicago say they received an unwelcome visit on their picket line Tuesday from a high-profile government official: Gregory Bovino, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commander spearheading President Donald Trump’s urban deportation campaign.
Teamsters Local 705 shared video of strikers interacting with an officer in a U.S. Border Patrol uniform who appears to be Bovino. The soundless video shows the official, flanked by agents, pointing at the camera and cackling with laughter.
Nicolas Coronado, an attorney for the union, told HuffPost that Bovino had asked the worker shooting the video if he was a U.S. citizen. He alleged that the interaction was a violation of the workers’ right to protest their employer, Mauser Packaging Solutions, without fear of retaliation.
Though no one was detained, Coronado said agents asked the workers to produce identification.
“It was very clearly protected concerted activity, and [agents] took it upon themselves to start asking [the workers] and interrogating them about their status,” said Coronado, adding that the interaction lasted between five and 10 minutes.
