Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. arrested by US immigration

Straits Times

2 days ago

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Mexico's Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. enters the ring ahead of his cruiserweight boxing bout against USA's Jake Paul at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
LOS ANGELES – Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been arrested by US immigration officers and faces deportation from the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said on July 3.
Chavez, a former world champion and the son of legendary Mexican fighter Julio Cesar Chavez, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles on July 2 after authorities determined that he was in the country illegally.
Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the 39-year-old fighter has 'an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition and explosives'.
The Mexican public prosecutor's office confirmed in a statement later that Mexico had issued an arrest warrant for Chavez in 2023 'for organized crime and arms trafficking'.
US authorities informed Mexico that they have begun the procedure to send him home, it added.
Homeland Security said Chavez is believed to have ties to the Sinaloa cartel, one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States.
His arrest comes days after his lopsided loss to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a cruiserweight bout before a sell-out crowd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Michael A. Goldstein, a lawyer for Chavez, told the Los Angeles Times that Chavez 'was detained outside of his residence by 25 or more ICE and other law enforcement agents'.
'They blocked off his street and took him into custody, leaving his family without any knowledge of his whereabouts,' Goldstein said.
'The current allegations are outrageous and appear to be designed as a headline to terrorize the community.'
Homeland Security added that Chavez had entered the United States legally in 2023 on a tourist visa that was valid until February 2024.
In April last year, he applied for permanent residency based on his marriage to a US citizen 'who is connected to the Sinaloa cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman'.
Homeland Security said that in addition to the active warrant in Mexico, Chavez had criminal convictions in the United States, including on weapons charges in 2024 in Los Angeles.
According to the statement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services told ICE that Chavez posed 'an egregious public safety threat'.
In a statement posted on the X account of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., the Chavez family expressed support for Chavez Jr.
'Our family is deeply dismayed by the situation,' the statement said.
'In these difficult times, we reiterate our full and unconditional support for Julio.
'We fully trust in his innocence and his humanity, as well as in the justice institutions in both Mexico and the United States, in which we place our hope that this situation will be clarified according to the law and truth.'
Chavez Jr. won the WBC middleweight world title in 2011 and successfully defended it three times.
He owns a record of 54-7 with one draw, but his career has also included multiple suspensions and fines for failed drug tests. AFP