Community Slams Rutgers for Rolling Out Red Carpet for Greg Bovino

Press Conference Monday, Nov 16

New Brunswick, NJ — The New Brunswick community is sounding the alarm that Rutgers State University plans to host the former ICE/Border Patrol Commander who directed the abuses in Chicago and Minneapolis, Greg Bovino. Community groups will host their own press conference outside the event at Rutgers University on November 16.

ICE Out of New Jersey, a statewide collective, condemned Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey for providing an institutional platform for Greg Bovino, as well as its ongoing employment and financial support to other individuals connected to the federal systems responsible for harming, separating families and murdering community members.

What: Community unity press conference
When: Monday, November 16, at 5:00PM (Bovino event is from 6-8pm)
Where: Outside Douglass Student Center, 100 Georges St, New Brunswick

Gregory Bovino, former U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large, oversaw high profile ICE and Border Patrol raids such as Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis where ICE agents separated immigrant families and murdered two US citizens, Rene Good and Alex Pretti.

More background and quotes:

“Providing Bovino a platform is not a politically neutral decision. Rutgers must answer why it is making space for these figures while continuing to leave its own students’ demands for protections unanswered. Gregory Bovino representa la violencia, el miedo y el terror que se han impuesto sobre las comunidades inmigrantes en todo el país. Como inmigrante y residente de New Brunswick, me niego a aceptar su presencia en nuestra comunidad. Rutgers no debe darles una plataforma a quienes se han dedicado a aterrorizar a nuestras familias. Nos solidarizamos con los estudiantes de Rutgers que exigen la cancelación de este evento. Nuestras comunidades merecen respeto y dignidad, no intimidación!” – Sara, Cosecha New Jersey

The community of New Brunswick is already weary of the campus support for DHS officials and enablers. Since 2017, Rutgers has employed Luis Soto as an instructor on its New Brunswick campus. Since 2025, more than 170 federal court cases have named Luis Soto the warden of Delaney Hall detention center.

Delaney Hall is an immigration detention facility operated by GEO Group, a private prison corporation which is responsible for the separation, mistreatment and medical neglect of our community members resulting in assaults, miscarriages and deaths. The warden of such a facility is inherently responsible for the conditions and treatment of individuals in their care. New Jersey’s Attorney General has launched a civil rights investigation into the conditions at the facility.

“As a longstanding community partner of Rutgers University, we believe Rutgers has an obligation to protect the people who learn, work, and build community within and around its campuses, including the immigrant and working-class communities with whom it has established relationships. We are appalled that Rutgers would provide university space to individuals whose presence and activities are dangerous to the communities Rutgers claims to serve. Rutgers cannot claim to value inclusion, equity, and community engagement while making decisions that undermine those very commitments.” – Amanda Dominguez, of workers rights organization New Labor

The community coalition is calling on Rutgers University leadership to:

1. Cancel the Gregory Bovino Event. Students and community members have already created a petition to cancel the event, listen to your community!
2. Listen to the student demands and to the broader community by adopting meaningful sanctuary campus protections as outlined by the students that ensure students, faculty, staff, and community members can safely access university spaces without fear. This also includes sharing the local rapid response hotline on its platforms 888-347-3767.
3. Explain its institutional relationships and decisions regarding the employment of Luis Soto and the invitation extended to Gregory Bovino, including the university’s rationale and any relevant institutional agreements or financial arrangements.

For months, Rutgers students have organized, advocated, and demanded that the university establish meaningful sanctuary campus protections. Rather than prioritizing these protections, Rutgers has continued to ignore the students and make decisions that deepen the concerns of its immigrant community.

“DIRE, whose volunteers include students and faculty at Rutgers, has worked with organizations on the New Brunswick campus and has supported families who are impacted by ICE violence in the state of New Jersey. Given the numerous abductions by ICE here in New Brunswick, we are stunned Rutgers would host a figure who openly supports violence against immigrants and their allies.” – Ellen Whitt, DIRE

“Casa Freehold stands with the students at Rutgers. As a parent of Rutgers alumni, I feel strongly that this man—who served as a former ICE commander and caused fear in our communities—should not be invited to speak at the university. His presence on campus feels like a slap in the face to students and to the communities affected by his actions. Rutgers must put students’ safety and security first.” – Dolly Hernandez Medina, Casa Freehold

“How do words and hate turn into bullets and blood? Through men like Greg Bovino. He directed the raids that shocked and disgusted the world. He led the secret police who slaughtered innocent people in our streets. How shocking that Rutgers would welcome him on campus. How disgusting that they would hand him a microphone. He needs to be shunned. He deserves to be arrested and tried. Bovino is gone from the Trump Administration but we have not forgotten him. We will never forget the man who said he was terrorizing landscapers and other “run-of-the-mill” immigrants because they were the worst threat to the U.S. In an Administration soaked in criminality and cruelty, Bovino was one of the worst of the worst. Shame on Rutgers for hosting him.” – Jorge Torres, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)

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