Former federal prosecutor and ex-FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann warned Monday not to mistake changes in Trump administration personnel for a shift in policy, following reports that senior Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, a key figure enforcing Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, is expected to leave Minneapolis amid growing unrest.
Weissmann told MS NOW’s Ari Melber: “Well, one view is for the public not to be distracted by a change in lower-level people.”
He continued, “What we are seeing in Minnesota and frankly, around the country, from the West Coast to now the far East Coast in Maine, is a result of the policy of Donald Trump.”
Weissmann stressed that shuffling officials around won’t necessarily change the overall ethos, and at times deadly nature, of the crackdown being carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
“When you have a president who very much is a unitary executive and everyone knows he is controlling all of this, you really can’t just put lipstick on a pig and say it has nothing to do with me,” he said. “Changing around who is there in Minnesota is not changing the policies.”