When it comes to internal investigations, Border Patrol has an inside guy.
In 2019, Daniel Altman became head of CBP and Border Patrol’s internal investigation unit. For six years, he covered up agent crimes from murders to sexual misconduct.
Please note this update: Daniel Altman from CBP OPR retired last month.
On May 9, 2024, NBC News came out with the following report on an incident I like to call Border Patrol Tequila Gate:
“On five occasions,” former Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens and other chiefs like Chief Gloria Chavez have visited this tequila maker’s homes in Texas and Mexico for lavish parties that included large mariachi bands, alcohol, expensive food and gifts. All of which is illegal for agents to accept. Chief Owens was attempting to have a “Border Patrol tequila” made and was offering the official US government Border Patrol logo for the bottles. Aside from taking gifts that might have possibly included a Cuban cigar, nobody has the legal right to sell or give away the rights to the US Border Patrol logo as it belongs to the American taxpayer and not Chief Owens.
It has been over a year and the internal affairs investigative arm of the Border Patrol’s parent organization, Custom and Border Protection (CBP) has not released any findings. That is because this internal investigative arm known as CBP OPR (Office of Professional Responsibility), has been was led by Executive Director Daniel Altman since 2019. In his time as executive director, agents have gotten away with killing a Native man after he called Border Patrol to help with migrants on his property, using force against Haitian families including children by swinging their long reigns and using horses to push them back into the river, neglecting a 16-year-old in their custody who died while laying on a cell floor next to a toilet, killing a mentally ill man in San Diego, killing a young man from Cuba and then according to talks I had with his family quickly ordering his body cremated against the family’s wishes, killing a Mexican man and then giving wildly conflicting statements that contradicted the investigating sheriff investigators, killing a man that we were never given any information about in 2022….it goes on and on and on. There are suicides, drownings, dangerous vehicle pursuits, falls from walls and cliffs and an endless amount of deaths that the agency just labels as “medical distress.” No reports are ever seen.
This is not to mention all of the other use of force incidents that do not result in deaths. The following video is a great example of Altman’s fealty to the agency. I found this video on TikTok in November 2024. After releasing it on what was then Twitter, Altman contacted me personally on email begging me to call him. I may have been born in a turnip truck, but it sure wasn’t yesterday. I wrote back that he should just do his job and investigate. I have yet to hear any resolution to this use of force incident.
That is was the norm, the standard operating procedure for Daniel Altman and his investigators who are hand selected and not surprisingly heavily represented by ex Border Patrol agents. It is rare to even see an investigative report by his department as he labels labeled most “law enforcement sensitive.” He hid all the illegal and secret Critical Incident Team coverup reports that he also used to help cover up every illegal deed done by agents since 1987, and he gladly opened his department to make those illegal teams a part of his investigations just last year. Yes, you read that correctly, the former executive director of CBP’s internal affairs unit hired all the teams that were secret and illegal in the Border Patrol to do his investigations in CBP OPR.
One look at the Haitian whipping incident report from his staff shows how he trains trained his investigators, who are always anonymous, on how to do the most unprofessional investigations I have ever seen in my thirty years studying this agency. OPR investigators did not interview the victims. Not a single one. They claimed they could not find the victims, which is rich because the victims were in their custody. They had pictures and video of them. This is the agency who can track down people illegally entering the country just by their footprints, but they cannot find someone in their custody? Not interviewing victims and witnesses, quickly deporting them or placing all of them in one vehicle or cell to then claim their testimonies are tainted is standard operating procedure for Border Patrol, CBP OPR and the illegal and secret coverup teams operated the same way.
So, I began digging to find out why Altman would do such a thing, and this is what I found:
USBP W.I.N. Podcast with Chief Landrum. CBP Office of Training & Development. YouTube, March 29, 2022.
First, Chief Landrum is ridiculous wearing a bullet proof vest as he was the academy chief at this time, but also because he is indoors in a recording studio. I don’t blame him for being afraid of Altman. He’s covered up some seriously heinous crimes, but the vest and how new and crisp it is shows you he never wears it. Very cringe.
Secondly: oh hey, how about that? He is a former Border Patrol agent. This means he “Bleeds Green,” which is a Border Patrol saying that means we are solely devoted to the agency. In fact, the agency identifies agents like Altman who are intelligent and helps them get the credentials and degrees they need so that they can obtain positions of oversight over the agency. This is a long game sweeties, and the Border Patrol has been doing this for over a hundred years now. We have always installed our “Bleed Green” agents in the oversight agencies whether that was the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General or even in CBP OPR.
But the most interesting thing about this interview is that Chief Landrum was removed from the agency in the beginning months of 2024 because of what News Nation’s Ali Bradley said was “alleged misconduct.”
As mentioned by Bradley who is a Border Patrol insider, this occurred at the same time that Chief Owens’ deputy chief, Joel Martinez, was removed for alleged sexual misconduct. Chief Martinez had been promoted to deputy chief, the second highest rank in the agency even though he was under investigation by CBP OPR for pressuring female agents to perform sexual acts. Both Landrum and Martinez took the same convenient route showed to them by former Chief Tony Barker who was removed for the same reasons. That was three chiefs removed in just two years for misconduct. (Chief Barker’s father was a CBP officer arrested and convicted for child molestation.)
But here’s the thing…they were not actually removed. They were given notice that they were under investigation for misconduct. All these chiefs were warned to retire or the investigations would come out. They all retired, kept their pensions and the victims never even received full investigations. It is illegal for agents to tip off subjects of internal affairs investigations. Agents have been convicted of tipping off buddies who were arrested and convicted of drug smuggling and other crimes, but not the management in Border Patrol.
So, it shouldn’t be surprising that Altman would take over a year. He is known for dragging his feet. Altman retired just this last month. This makes the press forget. And just like Barker, Landrum and Rodriguez, Chief Owens retired which means Daniel Altman will likely stopped the investigations and there will be no public reports.
One final thought, according to former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, he ordered Daniel Altman’s CBP OPR to investigate my accusations of being raped in the academy thirty years ago. He testified under oath in court that CBP OPR was monitoring and investigating me for my book and the things I have said about being hazed into the agency. I have never been interviewed by OPR for this investigation.
Former Chief Scott is now Commissioner of CBP and in charge of OPR and Daniel Altman. Daniel Altman retired according to his LinkedIn account in April 2025. Chief Gloria Chavez is currently Chief of Rio Grand Valley, Texas.