Following a storied career for ABC News, Jim Avila joined KGTV as a Senior Team 10 Investigator in Nov. 2023. Avila was the Senior White House Correspondent for ABC from 2012 to 2016, during Barack Obama's second term. Avila broke many stories while covering the White House, but one of the most notable was the U.S. reopening diplomatic relations with Cuba.
As part of Team 10, Avila will tap into his experience covering national politics to embrace his government watchdog role at the local level.
Avila made dozens of trips to the border from Texas, to Arizona to San Diego while working for ABC, making him a perfect fit for the border and U.S.-Mexico relations beat. He also visited the Guatemala-Mexico border, and traveled the route migrants make from Central America to the United States, and revealed the “kids in cages” custody nightmare suffered by migrant children separated from their parents in El Paso.
Here at KGTV, Avila anchored the Scripps 48 Hours On the Border coverage, a special report carried network wide.
During his time as a Senior National Correspondent for ABC, his reporting was prominently featured on many episodes of 20/20.
While in the Senior Law and Justice Correspondent role, he covered nearly every major trial for ABC, including OJ Simpson's, Michael Jackson's, Jerry Sandusky's, and many more.
Avila's broadcast career started in local news, with stops in Chicago and LA, so it was natural to return to those roots in America's Finest City, embracing the culture and vision of Scripps and 10News.
Have a story idea for Jim? Send him an email at Jim.Avila@10News.com.
