Chávez is now imprisoned in Sonora, Mexico, after he was transferred from a southern border checkpoint to police custody, according to reports.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed on Tuesday that the boxer had been deported to Mexico, although she was uncertain when exactly he arrived.
“I understand he was deported. I don’t know if it was yesterday or this morning, but we’re informed that he was going to arrive in Mexico,” she told reporters.
ICE agents arrested Chávez on July 2, days after he fought Jake Paul in the boxing ring. The detainee possesses ties to the Sinaloa cartel, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, and had an active arrest warrant on criminal charges in Mexico.
“There was an arrest warrant [against Chávez Jr.]. This was communicated several weeks ago,” Sheinbaum said. “When he was arrested there [in Los Angeles], there was an arrest warrant in Mexico from the Attorney General’s Office.”
The president previously said she hoped the United States would deport Chávez to Mexico to serve time in prison. Despite having the arrest warrant since 2023, Mexican authorities couldn’t arrest Chávez because he primarily resided in the U.S. The Mexican attorney general’s investigation began in 2019.
Chávez faces numerous charges for organized crime, human trafficking, arms trafficking, and drug trafficking in his native country, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He also had a criminal record in the U.S.
In 2012, he was convicted in Los Angeles for driving under the influence of alcohol and served a 13-day sentence with a 36-month probation. He was also convicted in 2024 for illegally possessing an assault weapon and manufacturing or importing a short-barreled rifle.
Additionally, the boxer reentered the U.S. illegally this January in the final days of the Biden administration after his visa expired in February 2024. In addition to overstaying his visa, he was deemed an “egregious” public safety threat by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in its December 2024 referral to ICE. The warning was ignored until the Trump administration took over.
MEXICAN BOXING LEGEND DEFENDS SON ARRESTED BY ICE: ‘HE IS NOT A CRIMINAL’
Chávez also allegedly lied on his green card application by submitting fraudulent statements when requesting lawful permanent residency in April 2024 based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen. His wife, Frida Muñoz, is connected to the Sinaloa cartel through her prior relationship with the son of the infamous Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who remains in prison for murder and drug trafficking.
Following his arrest last month, Chávez’s family issued a joint statement in defense of him. The father, a boxer himself, claimed in an interview with a Colombian newspaper that his son “is not a criminal and less everything he’s being accused of.”
