No Evidence to Support Allegations of Corruption Against the Border Patrol Union

El Diario de El Paso previously published three articles about the union that represents Border Patrol agents and support staff assigned to the El Paso Sector of the Border Patrol. The articles were published on April 18th, 19th, and 20th of 2022 with the following headlines: “Under the Spotlight, Local Border Patrol Union”, “Nepotism Favored in Border Patrol Union - Irregularities Reported” and “Mass Exodus in the Border Patrol Union.”

A subsequent journalistic audit of the materials led the Editorial Board to conclude that there is insufficient evidence to support the allegations that were made by a few individuals –the accusers –against former and current local and national union officials, including, but not limited to: Border Patrol Agents Brandon Thomas, Jose Frescas, Conrad Garcia, Danny Candelaria, Wes Farris, Iván Cervantes, Víctor Loya, Carlos Valle, Jesús Juárez, Durango Ayala, and John Vanderveen. In addition, there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations of misconduct or criminal activities alleged by the accusers against Chris Bauder, Carlos Favela, Miguel Favela, or Favela Consulting LLC.

There was a misappropriation of funds from the union, known as the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), Local 1929. However, contrary to the allegations that were presented to El Diario de El Paso by a few accusers, the Editorial Board has since learned that the irregularities were discovered by some of the Local 1929 union officers who were improperly accused of unlawful activities by the accusers. The Local 1929 officers reported the irregularities to the FBI and national union officers who ordered the detailed forensic audit. Upon completion of the forensic audit, local and national union officers coordinated the efforts to request an investigation by the appropriate authorities in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Labor.

From a review of the information, it is clear that national and local union officials were not engaged in a coverup as alleged by the accusers. Instead, the respective union officials cooperated with federal investigators and complied with requests by the investigators to maintain silence about the case to protect the integrity of the case and avoid tipping off anyone who may have been involved with the alleged fraud.

Due to those efforts and after several years of investigation by federal authorities, Dawn Munoz was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 23, 2022. Mrs. Munoz served as an external bookkeeper for NBPC Local 1929 from 2008 to 2018. She faces four counts of making and subscribing to a false statement, nine counts of complicity in preparing and filing a false statement, and three counts of bank fraud. Included in the indictment were the alleged irregularities that occurred from 2008 to 2018. The next court hearing for Mrs. Muñoz has been set for September 2, 2022, so her presumption of innocence is maintained.

The accusers claimed that the theft up to 2018 was $500,000 and also alleged that former and current officials of NBPC Local 1929 continued to steal another $500,000, but both claims were inaccurate. Dawn Munoz was the only person indicted by the federal grand jury.  The allegation that former and current union officials continued to take another $500,000 appears to be completely unfounded claim being spread by the accusers.  Moreover, there is no outstanding tax liability to the IRS as the accusers have alleged.

Aside from the case against Mrs. Munoz, the accusers knowingly made several incorrect, misleading, or untruthful statements to El Diario de El Paso, including the allegations pertaining to: embezzlement, corruption, or nepotism by former and current union officials, illegal weapons purchases, falsification of checks and receipts, unsubstantiated expenses for mileage, meals, and other customary business expenses. In one instance, the accusers used a cash withdrawal from Wells Fargo bank in the amount of $1,116 to allege a theft by one of the former local officers. However, El Diario de El Paso has since learned that the cash was for a legitimate expense paid to a vendor for a membership event that was held during the summer.

The accusers also falsely attributed a membership loss of 600 union members to the alleged misappropriation of funds. Although the local acknowledged a loss in members, nearly 470 dropped prior to 2018 and could be associated with a variety of other reasons such as employees retiring, promoting, quitting, transferring to a different sector, or accepting a different federal job. Similarly, there is no evidence to support the claims that “several agents” have meritorious claims that were “not being defended” in timely manner by the union while facing an alleged accusation for misconduct or poor performance in their job.

Although the accusers claimed Local 1929 was placed into union trusteeship to correct the allegations of corruption and financial fraud, those assertions were also false as those issues were already under investigation by the appropriate federal authorities as they were previously reported by the union when they discovered it. Instead, the primary objective of the trusteeship, as stated in the letter to the membership, was to restore financial controls and reestablish the leadership that deteriorated while Diego Martinez served as the president of the local. 

El Diario de El Paso has since learned that federal regulations may have been violated when the accusers released private personnel information regarding some of the former and current union officers and by making publicly false statements against the agency and some of its employees. Regrettably, the accusers led El Diario de El Paso to believe that they had a right to the information that they shared about other federal employees named in their accusations.

El Diario de El Paso regrets the presentation of these prior articles, and due to the extensive false information provided by the accusers, it retracts these three prior articles in their entirety.