House Republicans on the House Oversight and Homeland Security Committees are investigating whistleblower claims that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may have retaliated against a top Border Patrol official after testifying to the two committees — a claim that the agency called "categorically false."

"We write with deep concern that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials may have retaliated against a witness in a Congressional investigation," Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., said in a letter to acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller.

The lawmakers say they have received an allegation regarding El Centro Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino. The whistleblower claims that after Bovino concluded a transcribed interview with the committees July 12, he was "relieved of his command over the El Centro Sector and reassigned to a vague, indefinite, and temporary headquarters assignment."

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"The whistleblower indicates that this pattern is consistent with a common CBP practice to get rid of employees perceived as problematic by high-level officials by forcing those employees, out of frustration, to relocate, retire, or resign," Comer and Green said in the letter. "Given the suspicious timing of the reassignment coinciding with Chief Bovino’s cooperation with a Congressional inquiry, we...

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