Law Enforcement Today endorses Victor Avila Jr. to be the next director of ICE

Law Enforcement Today, under the umbrella of the 1776 Project and our related companies, The Police Tribune and Blue Lives Matter, comprises the largest law enforcement publications worldwide. We are the voice for the nearly 1.3 million men and women who serve their community, state, or the federal government in law enforcement in the United States and we represent nearly five million total followers online.

Under the Biden administration, over 10 million illegal aliens crossed our borders in what can only be classified as an invasion of our country. Thankfully, the Trump administration has nearly stopped the flow of illegals into the country, but there is still much work to be done to remove those who are already here. 

With that in mind, Law Enforcement Today wishes to endorse Victor Avila Jr. as the next director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Avila has an outstanding resume and is well-positioned to accept the tremendous responsibility of leading President Trump’s mass deportation efforts and working alongside border czar Tom Homan (whom we also endorsed) to restore the sovereignty of our great nation. 

Avila has impeccable credentials, starting with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and then as a probation officer with the U.S. court system in El Paso and San Antonio, Texas. He then went to work with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) as a senior special agent, where he developed a human trafficking task force in conjunction with NGOs and local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. He was incident commander for five major incidents, two investigations, and the execution of several high-risk search, arrest, and fugitive warrants. 

Avila also led internal investigations into corrupt U.S. Border Patrol Agents engaged in a human smuggling organization, resulting in one agent and three co-conspirators being arrested and convicted. He then led a task force of four federal agencies and used wireless intercepts to arrest one corrupt agent and three accomplices, resulting in over $100,000 in asset forfeiture recoveries. 

Avila worked as an Interim Assistant Attaché/ICE Rep./US Diplomat—International Operations at the US Embassy in Mexico City, where he led oversight of global trafficking comprised of over 50 staff members from the government of Mexico related to illegal activities in that country, Central America and the U.S., overseeing a budget of nearly $1 million. He assisted in dismantling five human trafficking organizations and began a history of combating human trafficking throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Avila was an accredited diplomat to Mexico, Spain, and Portugal, assisting in investigations including narcotics trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, financial crime, commercial fraud, and counterterrorism.  

All of the above only scratches the surface of Victor Avila Jr.’s qualifications. Avila has also seen up close the human cost of such efforts, where he and a partner, Jaime Zapata, were ambushed by Mexican cartel hitmen while on assignment in Mexico, with Avila being shot three times and Zapata shot and killed. He published a survival story of that incident in his book, “Agent Under Fire: A Murder and a Manifesto.” 

Victor Avila Jr. is eminently qualified to serve alongside border czar Tom Homan, Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, along with ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He would be an outstanding asset to the Trump administration's efforts to protect the border and deport those who violated our sovereignty. 

He has Law Enforcement Today’s hearty endorsement to be the new director of ICE.