Victor Avila has lived by, worked along and watched the U.S.-Mexican border for years. The former federal agent has a blunt assessment of its current state.
“Oh, it’s chaotic. It’s chaos. It’s wide open,” he told Federal Newswire. “I have certainly never seen this ever in my career." And I know the agents that I talk to right now, they have never seen this ever before.”
Avila formerly served as a supervisory special agent at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, which operates under the purview of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He was a special agent at the El Paso Field Office, assistant attaché stationed at the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, and was stationed at U.S. embassies in Spain, Portugal and Mexico City.
Avila, 50, said he worked along the U.S.-Mexican border “my whole career,” including stretches on both sides.
In December, Customs and Border Patrol reported 251,487 migrant encounters at the southwest border, representing a 40% surge from the previous year. Among these encounters, 161,808 involved single adults, 77,088 concerned family unit individuals and 12,298 involved unaccompanied children.
Within the initial quarter of the fiscal year, authorities halted 38 individuals whose names were on the terrorist watchlist attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border outside of ports of entry. This figure surpasses the cumulative encounters from fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2021 and is set to surpass the tally of 98 in fiscal year 22.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently disclosed that its seizures across the country, last year, totaled more than 50.6 million fentanyl pills and in excess of 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. According to the DEA Laboratory, these confiscations account for more than 379 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl, equivalent to a quantity that could eliminate the entire American populace.
In November, the DEA issued a warning to the public regarding a significant surge in the lethality of fentanyl pills across the nation. Laboratory analysis conducted by the DEA in 2022, disclosed that six out of 10 pills evaluated contained a potentially fatal dose of fentanyl. This is a rise from 2021, when four out of 10 pills tested were found to contain a potentially lethal quantity of fentanyl.
Avila said, based on his experience as an agent, when seizures increase, that is not a good indicator.
“It wasn’t what sometimes people think, ‘Oh, we’re catching all these drugs and we’re keeping them off the streets.’ On the surface, that’s absolutely true. And I welcome all the seizures,” he said. “But in reality, what’s happening is we are getting hit with an enormous amount of drugs that are not being detected. When the seizures go up, it’s not a good thing. And so you’ve seen these record numbers of fentanyl seizures."
Avila said when he worked along the border, marijuana, cocaine and heroin were the major drugs being smuggled. They are still flowing into the United States, he said.
He knows about the dangers of drug trafficking all too well. He experienced its horrors personally.
While on assignment in Mexico, Avila was attacked by the Los Zetas drug cartel, which resulted in him sustaining several gunshot wounds. Special agent Jaime Zapata was killed in the Feb. 15, 2011, shootout. Avila has since retired from this role.
In the time since President Biden assumed office, the number of migrant encounters at the southwest border has exceeded 4.5 million, with an additional 1.2 million known instances of individuals who avoided apprehension by U.S. Border Patrol agents over the past two years. To put this into perspective, the total number of encounters is greater than the population of Los Angeles.
According to reports, the Rio Grande Valley sector, which is among the busiest sectors along the border, has witnessed an escalation of more than 900% in the number of Chinese nationals arriving, compared to the same time the previous year.
In February 2022, there were only 55 encounters of Chinese nationals across the southern border, while in February 2023, this number had risen to 1,368. Overall, the number of Chinese nationals encountered during fiscal year 2021 was 450, which increased to 1,176 in fiscal year 2022. Since October of last year, the encounters have amounted to 4,366 in the ongoing fiscal year.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that designating these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations would not provide any further powers that the nation currently lacks.
Jean-Pierre explained that the United States already possesses robust sanction authorities that are precisely aimed at countering drug trafficking organizations and the individuals and groups who aid them, and the U.S. is not hesitant to apply them.
According to Javeed Ali, a former FBI intelligence analyst and current associate professor of practice at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, one of the most significant outcomes of designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations would be the ability to file charges for material support to terrorism, provided that Congress approves the State Department’s decision.
Ali further explained that these charges have proven successful in prosecuting numerous international terrorist organizations such as al-Qa'ida and ISIS, and have enabled the FBI, Department of Justice, and the Treasury Department to exert pressure on individuals who provide limited financial or material support to such designated groups.
Avila favors labeling the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
He said state and federal legislation can have a positive impact on fixing the border, including a call for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to declare an invasion is actually occurring. But he predicts it will fail.
“I’ll tell you right now, it’s not going to happen because the governor of Texas doesn’t want it to happen,” Avila said. “If he wanted that to happen, he would have declared the invasion officially under executive order and would have ordered his own DPS troopers and National Guard to hold people. I’ve been down there with them. All they do is observe and let them in.”
He said threats by the federal government to sue Texas or arrest Texas officers trying to maintain control at the border should be challenged.
Avila said illegal immigration remains a concern, but he is looking at the bigger picture of terrorism. More than 200 people have been detected and detained in the last two years.
He said many Americans are not aware of how out of control Mexico is.
“You can go and do your partying in Cabo (San Lucas) and be OK," he said. "But the reason you need to understand that it’s OK is because the cartels want it that way. I’ve been there and it’s because the cartels are the ones that have the control and the safety, not the Mexican government, not the police. And forget the border towns."
He wants to make an impact on this in Washington, D.C.
Avila ran for Texas land commissioner in 2022, but said he got into the race too late to be competitive. He finished fifth in the Republican primary with 7.5% of the vote.
