CanvasRebel: Meet Victor Williams

Interview with CanvasRebel

Meet Victor Williams

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victor Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Victor thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission started in anti-human trafficking as a Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) when I participated in an investigation of 9 women being trafficked from Mexico and heard the impact statement of one of the victims at the sentencing of the men who trafficked her. She was taken from her home in Mexico at 14 and brought to America. She was trafficked for 12 years and sexually serving/raped for money by 15 to 25 men a day who worked in the dirty farming fields in Homestead, FL picking the fruits and vegetables we consume. I used the word rape because that’s exactly what happens to human trafficking victims when they are forced to have sex with people they don’t want to have sex with. That day changed me forever and led me to my passion and purpose in life.

Victor, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born in Norfolk, VA, to a 12-year-old mother and raised by my great-grandmother. After graduating from high school, I joined the US Coast Guard for eight and half years, and I came to Miami, FL, in 1990 chasing a dream to operate Go-Fast boats chasing drug smugglers for the US Customs Service came true. In December of 1991, I started my career with US Customs Service, and in 1995, I started night school at Barry Universally in Miami, FL. After graduating in 2000, I was promoted to Special Agent. I was assigned to the U. S. Customs Service Office of the Special Agent in Charge Atlanta, GA, for five years and returned to Miami as a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, Miami Field Office.

In 2010, I went to Gaborone, Botswana, to the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) as Class Coordinator, where I received my first training in human trafficking and was moved by what I heard but didn’t understand 100%. When I returned to the States, I was reassigned to the HSI Office of the Special Agent in Charge, Miami, FL Human Trafficking (HT) Group, where I worked the last Eight years of my career conducting HT investigations. For six of those eight years, I was assigned as the Coordinator of the South Florida HT Task Force, and those experiences changed my life, making me a better man, Agent and making me realize how much culture plays in our life decisions.

After retiring in 2018, I moved back to Atlanta, GA, working Team Security for the Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club for Two years, and I became the HT Coordinator for the State of GA for a year after leaving the Hawks. Then, I moved back to Miami in August of 2021. I accepted the position of Vice Chair of the Miami-Dade County Human Trafficking Coalition, which kept me connected to the community and continuing to learn about the issues of HT. Then, in January of 2023, I started Quest2Freedom, my anti-human trafficking organization, where I provide HT cultural awareness training, advocate for victims and assist victims of HT in their immediate needs until they reach a long-term care service provider.

Human Trafficking is the number one crime in the world, and note that if you own a cell phone and buy food and clothes, you have a minimum of 40 to 60 slaves working for you. In other words, if we buy products from slave labor, we are all part of the problem whether we know it or not. Most people only talk about sex trafficking, but labor trafficking is 60 to 70% of worldwide trafficking. One of my goals with Quest2Freedom is to educate communities to a level to take action, change culture and save lives.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Of the many lessons I’ve learned in life, culture is everything, and we must understand that to change (unlearn) it. Human Trafficking exists because of a culture that makes it acceptable to buy people. We demonize sex workers (strippers, prostitutes) who could be victims of HT instead of demonizing the people (primarily men) who create the market. We glorify HT on TV, in movies, and when we dress up as pimps and prostitutes for Halloween or attended pimps and ho’s parties. We also must change/unlearn the culture of victim blaming.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I retired in 2018, I bought the domain Quest2Freedom to do what I’m doing now, but life had other lessons for me to learn before I started my anti-HT organization. One of the biggest lessons I learned was to start living from the inside out instead of living from the outside in. When living from the inside out, you turn off the outside doubts, fears, and distractions. You make the world adjust to you instead of you adjusting to the world, which we have no control over. We can only control what we do or how we respond. Life pivoted for me when I stopped reacting to life issues and started responding.

Contact Info:

• Website: Quest2freedom.org
• Instagram: quest2freedom
• Facebook: Quest2freedom
• Linkedin: quest2freedom
• Twitter: @victorq2f
• Youtube: Quest2freedom