A three-month investigation by PunchUp, published May 20, 2026 and reported with the Daily Beast the next day, found that the Department of Homeland Security had quietly rehired Dr. Alexander Eastman, 51, despite a record of misconduct findings that had gotten him removed, and later sent him to Minneapolis during the administration's deportation surge.
Eastman had served as acting chief medical officer for Customs and Border Protection. According to the investigation, he admitted to investigators that he had been drinking beer in a bar while carrying his work firearm; CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility found he violated agency policy and Arizona law by drinking while armed in Tucson in January 2024, and that he wrote and signed an unauthorized narcotics policy to obtain fentanyl lollipops for a 2023 United Nations mission in New York. He also remains under a DHS sexual-harassment investigation; a 2025 Dallas Morning News investigation found at least 12 people had filed complaints or described inappropriate behavior spanning CBP, UT Southwestern and the Dallas Police Department. He denies the harassment allegations.
Eastman was removed as acting chief medical officer in December 2024 after whistleblower complaints. His attorney says he was placed on investigative leave for 10 months and then suspended for seven days over the gun and narcotics violations. In October 2025 he was returned, without announcement, to his old job at DHS's Office of Health Security, at a salary of $324,000 a year; RealClearInvestigations had earlier reported he was the only DHS employee ever paid more than $300,000. In January 2026 he was sent to Minneapolis to assist Operation Metro Surge and worked at the Whipple ICE field office, though his attorney said his duties there were unrelated to detained migrants' health. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel flagged his conduct in a July letter to Trump.
His attorney, Dan Schwager, said “the majority” of the allegations were “determined to be unfounded or unsubstantiated, and only two minor policy violations were found,” and called the Tucson episode an inadvertent “single sip” of beer. A DHS spokesperson said the department was “committed to upholding the highest standards of professional conduct.”
Correction (October 2, 2026): The entry dated the investigation to May 21; PunchUp published it May 20 and the Daily Beast on May 21. It described 12 harassment complaints filed across multiple agencies; the Dallas Morning News reported at least 12 people who filed complaints or described inappropriate behavior across three employers. It also said DHS deployed him to Minneapolis into a role overseeing detainee care; his attorney says his Minneapolis duties were unrelated to detainee health, and no source in the entry says otherwise, so that claim was removed.