MEXICO CITY — Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico hadn’t previously arrested boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. on a 2023 arrest order because he had mostly been in the United States.
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 he 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.
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. Her daughter is a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
U.S. officials said Chávez is believed to have ties to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which is blamed for a significant portion of Mexico’s drug violence.