Mexico President Sheinbaum hopes deported boxer Chávez Jr. will serve time in Mexico

 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. wasn’t arrested earlier in Mexico because of his time spent in the U.S. American authorities announced Thursday that Chávez was detained in California for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application

Sheinbaum spoke a day after U.S. authorities announced the boxer’s arrest in California for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application. He was being processed for expedited removal, according to U.S. authorities.

“The hope is that he will be deported and serve the sentence in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing Friday, referring to charges that Chávez faces for arms and drug trafficking.

The 39-year-old boxer, according to his attorney Michael Goldstein, was picked up Wednesday by a large number of federal agents while he was riding a scooter in front of a home where he resides in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City, near Hollywood .

The arrest came only days after the former middleweight champion lost a match against influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Anaheim, California.

Chávez split his time between both countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Chávez for overstaying a tourist visa that he entered the U.S. with in August 2023 and expired in February 2024, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

The agency also said Chávez submitted multiple fraudulent statements when he applied for permanent residency on April 2, 2024, based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, Frida Muñoz. She is the mother of a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

U.S. officials said that he’s believed to have ties to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel , which is blamed for a significant portion of Mexico’s drug