Latest news with #ICEArrest
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr's legendary father breaks silence on son's ICE arrest over 'cartel links'
Boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez Sr has protested his son's innocence after he was arrested by ICE agents last week over his alleged connection to the Sinaloa Cartel. Just days after his defeat against Jake Paul in Anaheim, California at the end of June, Chavez Jr was arrested 27 miles away in Los Angeles for overstaying his US visa and lying on a green-card application, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In Mexico, the 39-year-old son and namesake of the country's greatest ever boxer is also wanted on allegations of drug and gun trafficking. The DHS said last Thursday that they are 'processing him for expedited removal from the United States' due to a warrant in Mexico. As for the timing of the arrest, they claimed Chavez Jr's June 28 loss to Paul occurred one day after he became determined to stay in the country illegally. Mexico has since confirmed that it issued an arrest warrant for Chavez Jr in 2023. The country's officials and the DHS 'started the corresponding procedure for his extradition to Mexico,' it was revealed last week. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has also expressed hope that he will be imprisoned upon return. Amid plans to deport his son back to their homeland, Chavez Sr - one of the greatest fighters in boxing history - has claimed his son is innocent and that he is by no means a criminal. 'It's complicated, there's a lot of talk, but we're calm because we know my son's innocence,' the 62-year-old told the El Heraldo newspaper. 'My son will be anything you want, anything, but he is not a criminal and less everything he's being accused of.' Alejandro Gertz Manero, Mexico's Attorney General, said on Sunday that the investigation against Chavez Jr started in 2019 after a complaint filed by US authorities against the Sinaloa Cartel for organized crime, human trafficking, arms trafficking, and drug trafficking. 'He knows a lot of people, we live in Culiacan , it would be impossible not to know all of the people that are doing illicit stuff, but that does not mean nothing,' Chavez Sr said. 'In my time I met everybody, and they did not come after me.' Chavez senior was considered one of the best Mexican boxers of all time; a world champion at three divisions. In the 1980s and '90s he was a huge celebrity who mixed with drug dealers. He claimed in the past to have been friends with drug lords Amada Carrillo Fuentes and Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. Gertz Manero said Chavez Junior's lawyers have requested at least five injunctions in Mexico, which have been rejected because the boxer is still in the United States. 'Lawyers in the United States are working to see if he stays there, and we're prepared if he comes here,' Chavez senior said. 'We'll fight under Mexican law if he´s transferred here.' Chavez has spent considerable time in his native Mexico and the US in recent years, but according to the Department of Homeland Security, his tourist visa expired in February of 2024. The agency further claims Chavez filed several fraudulent statements while applying for permanent residence in April of 2024 after marrying Frida Muñoz, who is related to imprisoned Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. Chavez's father has openly spoken about his own relationships with the Sinaloa Cartel and, in particular, 'El Chapo'. In a podcast with journalist Javier Alarcon in 2021, he revealed: 'Not just El Chapo, I've met all the most wanted drug traffickers, like Amado Carrillo, El Azul [Esparragoza], and El Mayo [Zambada].
The Sun
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Dramatic footage reveals moment Julio Cesar Chavez Jr is arrested by ICE just days after losing Jake Paul fight
DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr was arrested by ICE for his alleged involvement in organized crime. It came just days after the former middleweight world champion was beaten by YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in California. 5 5 5 Chavez Jr - son of the legendary Julio Cesar Sr - was arrested in Los Angeles and faces deportation back to Mexico. Police cam footage has emerged of the 39-year-old being arrested by ICE agents - put in cuffs and chained up. US officials say he is affiliated with the notorious Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel - helping with "trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives". Homeland Security posted his mugshot and wrote: "On July 2, ICE arrested Mexican boxer and criminal illegal alien Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. "He is now being processed for expedited removal from the United States. "This Sinaloa Cartel affiliate has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunitions and explosives. "Under President Trump, NO ONE is above the law—including world-famous athletes. "Our message to any cartel affiliates in the U.S. is clear: We will find you and you will face consequences. "The days of unchecked cartel violence are over." President Donald Trump designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a terrorist organization on his first day back in office in January. Chavez Jr's wife Frida Munoz was previously married to the son of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison and his son Edgar was assassinated in 2008. Describing Chavez Jr's alleged connection, the statement says he applied for US permanent residency last year due to 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". In January 2024, Chavez Jr was arrested in LA and later convicted for illegal possession of an assault weapon. A year earlier, a local judge issued an arrest warrant against him for allegedly trafficking weapons for a criminal organisation. He also allegedly made multiple fraudulent statements to US immigration authorities in attempts to gain permanent residency and over-stayed a tourist visa that expired last February. A lawyer for Chavez Jr called his arrest "nothing more than another headline to terrorise the Latin community". Lawyer Michael Goldstein told NBC,: "This is the first we've ever heard of these outrageous allegations." Chavez Jr won the WBC title in 2011 and made three defenses of the belt but his later career has been plagued with scandals and a lack of discipline. His record is now 54-7-1 after losing over ten rounds to Paul in Anaheim. 5 5
CNN
17-06-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Journalist live-streamed his arrest by ICE during protest
Salvadoran journalist, Mario Guevara live-streamed his arrest by ice agents during a "No Kings protest" in Atlanta, and is still being held on an immigration detainer.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Afghan man who worked as interpreter for US Army detained by ICE in San Diego
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — An Afghan man who once helped the U.S. military abroad is being held in ICE detention after his arrest Thursday. It's part of a recent wave of federal courthouse arrests in San Diego and across the country. Cellphone video obtained by FOX 5/KUSI shows federal agents as they approached the asylum-seeker moments after his first hearing and repeatedly asked him for his name. The man, who was accompanied by his attorney, refused to answer and agents proceeded to handcuff the man in the hallway of the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego before producing a warrant. The man stated that he worked with the U.S. military in his home country and has documents to prove it. His attorney, Brian McGoldrick, confirmed his client was an interpreter for the U.S. Army for three years before the 2021 Taliban takeover. 'He and his brothers had a logistics company in Afghanistan, and they provided a lot of material,' McGoldrick said. Word of the arrest sent shockwaves through AfghanEvac, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Afghan allies. 'Every message they're sending to Afghans is we don't want you here, get out, which is wild and especially considering how many Veterans care about this. Because if they get sent back, they're dead,' said Shawn VanDiver, President and Founder of AfghanEvac. VanDiver said the man's wife was previously threatened by the Taliban at a wedding where one of his brother's was murdered. 'So, he fled to Iran. Got to Brazil on a humanitarian visa and walked here from Brazil,' VanDiver added. 'The whole world is watching what's happening with these folks. How is anybody going to stand by us again?' VanDiver said. Meanwhile, McGoldrick is keeping his client's name confidential for safety reasons, but said he has a pending Special Immigrant visa, no criminal record and was legally paroled into the U.S. 'He finally got an appointment with CBP One and he presented himself at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, I think July 6 of 2024,' said Brian McGoldrick, immigration attorney for the Afghan asylum-seeker. He said a judge denied the government's motion to dismiss the case. 'The government simply used a statue that allows them to say that his Notice to Appear was improvidently issued,' McGoldrick said. 'That means that the Notice to Appear would've been mistakenly issued,' explained immigration attorney Saman Nasseri. He explained the approach is becoming more and more common in immigration court. 'The way that they've been justifying arresting people at these hearings is they're dismissing terminating the notices to appear, putting people in expedited removal proceedings,' Nasseri said. However, McGoldrick said when he asked for more information regarding the Notice to Appear and reasoning behind the request for case dismissal, the government's attorney refused to elaborate. McGoldrick said he hadn't been able to speak with his client while he's detained in Otay Mesa. He explained that he could remain in custody for months until his asylum hearing in September. 'It's really ICE's discretion to hold him or not,' he added. 'We don't have a relationship with Afghanistan that allows us to return immigrants. It's kind of scary to think that if he were put in expedited removal where would he go?' FOX 5/KUSI reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment but have not heard back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Yahoo
Despite dismissal new hearing set for Guatemalan man arrested by ICE in New Bedford
NEW BEDFORD – The Guatemalan man whose violent arrest in New Bedford by ICE was caught on video faces a new hearing though the case was dismissed May 8 when the Dept. of Homeland Security failed to submit a charging document. Attorney Ondine Galvez Sniffin represents Juan Francisco Méndez, 29. He was pulled from his car April 14 after ICE agents smashed in a window to his car, which was caught on video by his wife, Marilú. Sniffin has said Méndez has no record and it may have been a case of mistaken identity. His wife has asylum status which provides him with legal benefits that they had been working on obtaining prior to the arrest. Sniffin said standard procedure was followed May 8 by Judge Donald Ostrom in U.S. Immigration Court in Chelmsford when he dismissed the case after the government failed to provide the charging document. But, she said, the judge 'in his wisdom' continued a bond hearing where Méndez could be released on bail to May 15 anyway in case there was a 'glitch,' and Méndez was still in jail at that time. That glitch materialized on May 9. Sniffin said Méndez should have been released after the May 8 dismissal. She tried contacting the Dept. of Homeland Security on May 9 to arrange the release but didn't get a response. By that afternoon attorney Ryan P. Sullivan, who also represents Méndez, had filed a motion for immediate release with U.S. District Court Judge Joseph N. Laplante for the District of New Hampshire. It was denied. Sullivan had previously filed a habeas petition with that court and Judge Laplante ordered immigration officials to provide 72 hours notice before transferring Méndez anywhere. The judge denied the motion to release on May 9. The government had argued it hadn't been given an opportunity to counter argue, Sniffin said. They said the May 8 hearing wasn't valid because it was held under Méndez's incorrect identification number, or A for alien number. It's used by Immigration until a person becomes a citizen. Sniffin added, 'Mind you, it was their mistake.' A new hearing has been scheduled for May 22 back in U.S. Immigration Court. However, there's still the continued bond hearing on May 15. Sniffin said she called the court and tried to get the cases combined. They said no. They said one was a bond hearing, and the other was to determine if there's a case. 'So we're going to confront the same garbage' that they confronted May 8. 'DHS still has not filed a charging document for the May 22 hearing. They did the same thing again. They just asked the court to schedule a hearing. It's scheduled and they have not filed a charging document again,' she said. Méndez is not charged with anything, she said. 'They're holding him without having filed a single document.' He is still being held by the Strafford County Dept. of Corrections in Dover, N.H. She hopes their argument will be heard May 15 and remove the need for a May 22 hearing, but she doesn't know. She said the maneuvering seemed retaliatory. 'This is what you get for opening your mouth. That's what I think they're doing. They're punishing my client because this got media attention nationwide,' Sniffin said. An ICE spokesman referred requests for comment to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, which has not responded. This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New hearing set for Guatemalan man arrested by ICE in New Bedford
