New video of Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.'s ICE arrest emerges
Chávez Jr., a Mexican citizen and the husband of a United States citizen, is facing 'expedited removal' from the U.S. due to an alleged arrest warrant in Mexico for 'involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives' and allegedly being an 'affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel,' the Department of Homeland Security said in a release Thursday.
Michael Goldstein, Chávez Jr.'s attorney, said Thursday that the arrest occurred while Chávez Jr. was on a scooter outside his Studio City, Calif. home, according to the Associated Press, and his manager, Sean Gibbons, told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that they were 'working on a few things.'
'They blocked off his street and took him into custody leaving his family without any knowledge of his whereabouts,' Goldstein told the Times, while also saying that around 25 agents and officials were present for Chávez Jr.'s arrest. 'The current allegations are outrageous and appear to be designed as a headline to terrorize the community. Mr. Chavez is not a threat to the community.'
5 Julio César Chávez Jr. was arrested by ICE on
July 2.
x/MattSeedorff
5 Mexican boxed Julio César Chávez Jr. was arrested
by ICE on July 2.
x/MattSeedorff
Chávez Jr. applied to get lawful permanent resident status in April 2024 — two months after the B2 tourist visa he originally received in August 2023 expired, according to the DHS.
But there were 'multiple fraudulent statements' on the application, according to the DHS, and Chávez Jr.'s wife, Frida Muñoz, has an alleged connection to the Sinaloa Cartel from a previous relationship to the late son of leader Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.
5 Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. was arrested
by ICE.
x/MattSeedorff
5 Julio César Chávez Jr. during a May 5 weigh-in.
LatinContent via Getty Images
ICE was notified in December that Chávez Jr. was an 'egregious public safety threat,' according to the DHS, but the administration of former President Joe Biden determined he wasn't an 'immigration enforcement priority' — and Chávez Jr. was allowed back into the U.S. on Jan. 4.
Due to the fraudulent statements, he was considered 'removable' on June 27, according to the DHS.
5 Julio César Chávez Jr. is pictured during a Feb. 23 press conference.
LatinContent via Getty Images
The Sinaloa Cartel was designated as a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization' by President Donald Trump's administration.
Chávez Jr., the son of the famous Mexican boxer, lost to Paul by unanimous decision Saturday in his second bout since 2021.
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Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Trump ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding
The MAGA movement is reveling in the creativity, severity and accelerating force of President Trump's historic immigration crackdown. Why it matters: Once-fringe tactics — an alligator-moated detention camp, deportations to war zones, denaturalization of immigrant citizens — are now being proudly embraced at the highest levels of the U.S. government. It's an extraordinary shift from Trump's first term, when nationwide backlash and the appearance of cruelty forced the administration to abandon its family separation policy for unauthorized immigrants. Six months into his second term — and with tens of billions of dollars in new funding soon flowing to ICE — Trump is only just beginning to scale up his mass deportation machine. Driving the news: Trump on Tuesday toured a temporary ICE facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed " Alligator Alcatraz," where thousands of migrants will be detained in a remote, marshland environment teeming with predators. MAGA influencers invited on the trip gleefully posted photos of the prison's cages and souvenir-style "merchandise," thrilling their followers and horrifying critics. Pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer drew outrage after tweeting that "alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now" — widely interpreted as a reference to the Hispanic population of the United States. The big picture: Citing the millions of unauthorized immigrants who crossed the border under President Biden, Trump and his MAGA allies have framed the second-term crackdown as a long-overdue purge. The result is an increasingly draconian set of enforcement measures designed to deter, expel and make examples out of unauthorized immigrants. Some newer members of the MAGA coalition, such as podcaster Joe Rogan, have expressed deep discomfort with the targeting of non-criminal undocumented immigrants. Zoom in: Trump's deportation efforts exploded into a full-blown spectacle in March, when the U.S. flew hundreds of alleged gang members to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. The operation was captured in glitzy promotional footage, distributed on official White House social media, that showed shaved and shackled migrants being marched off planes and busses at gunpoint. Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador but brought back to face human trafficking charges in the U.S., claims he suffered "severe beatings" and was tortured in the prison. Zoom out: Trump's immigration toolkit has expanded since March, as his aides push for a dramatically higher pace of arrests and deportations. Trump federalized the National Guard in California and deployed troops in Los Angeles to protect federal ICE agents, giving the military a rare and highly contentious role in immigration raids. The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants to non-origin countries — including war torn nations such as South Sudan and Libya. Hundreds of migrants are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This week, Trump claimed that "conceptual work" is underway to reopen Alcatraz — the decrepit former island prison in San Francisco, now a tourist site. The latest: On Thursday, ICE announced it had arrested and was preparing to deport Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. — accusing him of cartel ties just days after he headlined an arena against influencer Jake Paul. What to watch: Denaturalization of U.S. citizens — once a legal backwater — is gaining traction as Trump and his MAGA allies push the envelope on nativist rhetoric. The Justice Department has begun prioritizing stripping naturalized Americans of their citizenship when they're charged with crimes and "illegally procured or misrepresented facts in the naturalization process." But some MAGA influencers are pushing to weaponize denaturalization more broadly — not just as a legal remedy for fraud, but as a tool to punish ideological opponents. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has called for the Justice Department to investigate the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. Trump has echoed false claims about Mamdani being in the country "illegally," and threatened to arrest the democratic socialist if he impedes federal immigration operations in New York. Between the lines: For MAGA influencers obsessed with the notion of protecting Western civilization, denaturalization is also about enforcing cultural loyalty. Prominent voices on the right have argued that immigrants who haven't properly "assimilated" — by their definition — should be vulnerable to losing their citizenship. "The MAGA movement is willing to make examples of the people who have failed to [assimilate] so that in the future, the bar is set higher," said Raheem Kassam, editor of The National Pulse. The bottom line: MAGA is leveraging a precedent-busting president to set a new standard for immigration enforcement — one that could define Republican policy for years to come.
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Multiple sex offenders — including one who raped 7-yr-old girl — housed in NYC shelter feet from kids park
The city has quietly turned a former hotel into a taxpayer-funded den for child predators and other sex offenders — located less than 250 feet from a playground, The Post has learned. At least five level 2 and level 3 sex offenders — the worst of the worst, including one monster who had sex with a 7-year-old — are living in a homeless shelter at 61 Chrystie St., 243 feet from the Hester Street Playground in Chinatown. 'There's so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin,' said resident Brian Chin, the father of a 4-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl who he no longer allows on that playground. 11 The property that was formerly a commercial hotel is now being used to house the homeless, some of whom are sex offenders. Stephen Yang 'Finding out that the city has secretly been putting child predators into an all-expenses paid hotel overlooking the children's park, on the taxpayers dime, it verges on being almost unbelievable,' said the irate dad, a neighborhood activist who researched the hotel and discovered the city was placing sex offenders there. 'The sheer amount of sex offenders concentrated in that one hotel, the fact that they're free to roam around, and that it's literally situated directly across from the kids park and the local high school, it's appalling.' State law prohibits level 2 and 3 sex offenders, who are considered at medium and high risk of reoffending, from living within 1,320 feet — or a quarter mile — of playgrounds, schools, parks and childcare facilities. 11 The shelter is located less than 250 feet away from the Hester Street Playground at Hester and Chrystie Streets. Stephen Yang 'We don't even know how many level 1 sex offenders are living there because they're not listed [in the state sex-offender registry],' Chin said of the lowest level predators. The shelter was once a boutique hotel called Hotel MB and before that a Comfort Inn. It was converted into a homeless facility in the summer of 2021, according to reports online. It is not clear when the city began moving in the sex offenders or how many of them live at the site. The Post has reached out to city officials. The shelter is run by a Bronx-based non-profit called the Neighborhood Association for Inter-Cultural Affairs Inc. (NAICA), which has pocketed nearly $1.3 billion in city contracts the past decade, records show. 11 Dad Brian Chin no longer takes his kids to the neighborhood playground because of the nearby sex offenders. Stephen Yang NAICA's Chrystie Street location was part of a four-year $160.5 million contract with DHS to provide 467 beds for single adults there and at two other locations in the Bronx and Queens, according to the city Comptroller's office. That deal expired June 30, but DHS ironed out a one-year, $42.2 million extension, according to a legal notice on the city's website. The new contract has yet to be registered with the Comptroller's office. 11 The playground is located in Sarah D. Roosevelt Park. Stephen Yang The sex offenders living there, according to the state's Sex Offender Registry, include: Darren Jackson, 63: Level-3 offender convicted in 2010 for raping a 7-year-old girl multiple times and sentenced to three years in prison. Lemar Jackson, 57: Level 3 offender convicted in 2008 for deviate sexual intercourse for using threats and physically overpowering 12- and 9-year-old girls and sentenced to two to four years in state prison. Elvin Vega, 57: Level 3 offender convicted in 1998 for using a blunt object to force a female of unknown age to have intercourse, and sentenced to 18 months to three years in state prison. Legrand Jones, 63: Level 2 sexually violent offender convicted of sexual abuse in 2003 for overpowering a 21-year-old woman and forcing her to have sex. Sentenced to two to four years in prison. Terrence Brown, 59: Level 2 offender convicted of forcible touching another person's intimate parts in 2009 and sentenced to six months. 11 Darren Jackson is a level 3 sex offender and lives at the shelter, according to state records. NY Sex Offender Registry 11 Lemar Jackson is a Level 3 sex offender, records show. NY Sex Offender Registry 11 Elvin Vega is a level 3 sex offender who lives at the shelter, records show. NY Sex Offender Registry Some area activists became aware the hotel was being used as a shelter for parolees back in 2021 and raised their concerns — but nothing changed, according to Jacky Wong, managing director of the greater Chinatown Civic Coalition. 'Both DHS [Department of Homeless Services] and the hotel owner had previously assured us that this parolee shelter would close in June 2022,' Wong said. 'But they lied. It's still operating. This shelter, along with other nearby facilities for single men, has directly and indirectly contributed to increased crime and safety concerns in and around Sara D. Roosevelt Park.' 11 Daiya Williams, 22, of Brooklyn, said she wouldn't bring her kids to the park because of the sex offenders who live nearby. Stephen Yang Murder, rape, robbery and assault are all up so far this year over last in the 5th Precinct, which encapsulates most of Chinatown. There have been two murders in the precinct this year so far as compared to none in the same period last year, according to NYPD data. Robbery is up 29%, to 76 incidents so far this year from 59 last year. Felony assault has increased 3.9% to 106 so far this year, compared to 102 in the same span of last year. Rape is up 80% to nine so far this year compared to five in the same period of 2024, the data show. Wong pointed to the assault and attempted rape of an 80-year-old woman in November near the corner of Grand Street and Chrystie Street. 11 John Quinones, 42, was horrified to learn the sex offenders were being housed next to the city playground. Stephen Yang 'There is no accountability from these shelter operators, and DHS continues to target low-income communities of color like ours for these placements,' he said. 'This is discriminatory and unacceptable.' Sex offenders aren't supposed to be housed in shelters in residential neighborhoods, said Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa. 'This is part of the shelter problem,' Sliwa said. 'It's become a cottage industry where there are contracts and then obviously, the people who get the contracts, subcontract out, all the ancillary services to friends and relatives and associates, but the one thing that they should be doing is vetting who it is that actually is in a shelter and they don't.' The city Department of Social Services released a statement saying that not everyone required to register in the sex offender database has residency restrictions. 'DSS provides shelter to anyone in need in accordance with New York City's right to shelter law while also ensuring compliance with all necessary local laws and regulations which includes being mindful of any residency restrictions and specific criteria laid out in state law,' the statement said. The agency didn't respond to a follow up question about why level 2 and 3 offenders were permitted to live so close to a playground. Many people who were in the park with their children Wednesday were upset to learn of the shelter sickos. 'I'm super pissed off, I'm talking to my husband right now on the phone and he's extremely mad as well,' said a 29-year-old mom who takes her two kids to the playground at least twice a week. 'They shouldn't be anywhere near the park.' Brooklyn choreographer John Quinones, a 42-year-old grandfather, was 'horrified.' 11 The playground is located 243 feet from the hotel that's been converted into a shelter. Stephen Yang 'I'm the type of person that would want to take actions into my own hands and probably get in trouble,' he said. Resident Daiya Williams was adamant that the city should have at least notified parents. 'Given it's New York City anything can happen, and I don't want to take the chance,' she said. 'It's not safe.' Chin plans to keep calling attention to the problem. 11 Brian Chin, a father-of-two, said someone should be 'held accountable' for placing the perverts next to the playground. Stephen Yang 'Placing violent child sex predators across from our children's park, the city and the officials who approved this need to be held accountable,' the dad said. 'I think I can confidently speak for all of us when I say that enough is enough.' NAICA did not return requests for comment. Additional reporting by Samantha Olander
Los Angeles Times
5 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
In Pasadena, a community comes together for a 14-year-old street vendor
It was only 8 a.m. and the 500 tamales that Christopher Luna Garcia had hoped to sell were down to just a few dozen. About 17 hungry people lined up at the food cart near Villa Parke in Pasadena, where an immigration sweep had taken place nearly two weeks ago on June 21. Steam flowed from the cart and the scent of masa drifted through the air as Chris, 14, reached down to pull out tamales. 'It's a lot,' he said of the community response. 'But I'm grateful for it.' Chris said he took over his mom's street vending business after the immigration raid. His mother, Carmen Garcia, 44, who is a legal resident, said three of her customers were detained during the sweep at the park. But immigration agents did not take her into custody. 'I was so afraid after that,' she said. 'I have documents, but I'm still scared, very scared.' It wasn't long ago that Chris, a tall teenager, struggled to make sales, sometimes bringing in less than $100 daily — and on a really bad day just $20. But on Friday, the tamales were selling fast. So much so that his aunt joined to help meet the high demand with a second cart. Friday's event was organized by Alex 'Tio Joker' Murillo, an actor and community activist who stumbled upon Chris one afternoon and shared a video of him on social media. 'I want to help out the Latino youth,' Murillo said. 'This ICE stuff is bad, but we've also turned it into something good.' He took the video amid President Trump's immigration crackdown, targeting criminal and immigrant workers suspected of living in the country illegally at Home Depots, car washes and sidewalks. The wave of immigration sweeps over the past month has prompted some American-born children to take over street vending businesses on behalf of their parents. The operation at Villa Parke prompted Pasadena city officials to cancel swimming lessons and other recreation programs at the park and two others. That decision came after a string of recent immigration enforcement actions in Pasadena. In one raid, federal agents detained people at a bus stop at Orange Grove Boulevard and Los Robles Avenue on June 18. And residents demonstrated last month outside of the AC Hotel, where federal immigration agents were staying. Both took place less than a mile from Villa Parke. Murillo said he decided to help the family when he learned that Chris had stepped up to sell tamales for his mom because of the sweep and also because they were falling behind on bills. So Murillo took to Instagram, calling on his followers and others to show up at the stand on Friday to buy out the tamales. He also said he would sell food to raise money to take Chris and the children of a day laborer who was detained during the bus stop operation to Disneyland. Enji Chung, 47, a resident and member of the Pasadena Tenants Union, was one of the first people to show up and purchase tamales. She said it was important to show support for those affected by the federal immigration crackdown. 'I think it's been extremely scary to know there are armed, masked people running around, inciting fear and snatching people off the street,' she said. 'It's not just undocumented people. It's U.S. citizens and anyone they're racially profiling.' Yun Uen Ramos-Vega, 22, and Janette Ramos-Vega, 21, drove from Monrovia to support Chris after learning about his story. They said they related to his situation because they are also helping relatives by running errands on their behalf. The pair said they know at least two people who have been detained by federal immigration agents. At least one has been deported to Mexico while the other remains at a detention center. Laura Ruvalcaba, 40, of Pasadena, showed up with her husband and 8-year-old son. 'We saw Chris' story and we're going to be here,' she said. 'We're all about supporting the community, especially the youth.' She said she was happy to see the long line of customers. 'It's amazing,' she said. 'Anything we can do to help out and come together is good.' An American citizen, Ruvalcaba said the immigration sweeps have left her afraid. 'It's not even about anything else but the color of my skin,' she said. 'I'm scared to come out sometimes.' She said she started carrying a copy of her American citizenship certificate two weeks ago, as well as her son's birth certificate. She tells her 18-year-old daughter to be on alert when she goes out. 'Now, you're not just watching out for bad things,' Ruvalcaba said she told her daughter. 'You're watching out for people in uniforms.' The event Friday morning also brought out lowriders, which bounced as old-school hip-hop blasted from the car's speakers, encouraging people to cheer and take videos with their cellphones. It was nearing 9 a.m. when the tamales from both carts were gone, bringing in more than $1,500 that Chris and his family will use to pay bills and rent. His brother, Erick Garcia, 20, said his mom and aunt had gone to cook more tamales in hopes of selling more throughout the day. Exhausted, Chris sat on a fold-out chair for a moment, letting out a sigh of relief and massaging his eyebrows with his fingers. He had been up since 4 a.m. and though he was tired, he said he wanted to take action because his mother helped raised him and his three siblings alone. 'She doesn't have much support,' he said. 'I just want to help her out.'
