ICE fails to stop Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.
Did Trump advisor Stephen Miller consider what was best for fans?
First, we found out that boxing nepobaby Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (JCCJR) was arrested by ICE in the days after his flop pay-per-view bout against Jake Paul.
From DHS dot Gov:
ICE arrested Chavez in Studio City, California on July 2.
On April 2, 2024, Chavez filed application for Lawful Permanent Resident status. Chavez’s application was based on his marriage to a U.S. 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.
On December 17, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services made a referral to ICE that Chavez is an egregious public safety threat. However, an entry in a DHS law enforcement system under the Biden administration indicated Chavez was not an immigration enforcement priority.
On January 4, 2025, the Biden administration allowed Chavez to reenter the country and paroled him into the country at the San Ysidro port of entry.
Following multiple fraudulent statements on his application to become a Lawful Permanent Resident, he was determined to be in the country illegally and removable on June 27, 2025.
JCCJR was arrested on July 2, but the warrant was issued on June 27. JCCJR fought Jake Paul on pay-per-view on June 28.
Rodrigo Del Campo González asked the obvious question:
And Lou DiBella had some thoughts, too:
So they claim he's a cartel affiliate, but they allow him to co-front and promote a multi-multi-million dollar event. After he's already performed, made the bag, and been all over the media working here ... THEN they bust and deport him. Can't make this shit up.
Mike Coppinger asked the inevitable follow-up:
According to DHS, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was identified as removable by ICE on June 27, one day before his fight with Jake Paul. So why did this event even proceed then?
All of that was bad enough, and I’ll have lots of thoughts about who in Trump’s administration allowed the event to proceed and why, but first, there’s more brain-exploding news about JCCJR.
Mexican prosecutors allege that JCCJR not only married former Sinaloa Cartel boss El Chapo’s ex-wife, but he also was a “henchman” for present-day cartel leader Néstor Ernesto Pérez Salas, alias “El Nini.”
Check out the allegation, via Marca.com:
The prosecutor's office's accusation is based on two telephone calls from alleged drug traffickers, as well as immigration records shared by the United States and after his arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol.
On November 21, 2019, the deputy attache of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and the U.S. Embassy's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) filed a complaint with the Mexican Attorney General's Office for arms trafficking. As a result of this complaint, the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime wiretapped several suspects from December 11, 2021 to June 11, 2022.
(The surveillance revealed that) one of the cartel members took a girlfriend to a safe house where there were kidnapped people and a warehouse with weapons. There he saw how 'El Nini' ordered his subordinate to be tied up and hung like a punching bag for Chavez Jr. to hit him.
Well, what a sterling end to JCCJR’s already spotted career as a professional boxer.
Cui bono analysis of ICE decision to deport JCCJR
So why did ICE hold off?
I have limited sources inside Stephen Miller’s war on immigration, and they ain’t talking, so let me get straight to the speculation.
Who benefited from allowing Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. to fight Jake Paul and had the influence with the Trump camp to get it done?
Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian?
The MMA Draw’s own
asked:Great question, Blake! Unfortunately for your “Jake Paul Makes Massive IQ play” premise, the California State Athletic Commission generally oversees a same-night payment to boxers fighting in their jurisdiction.
So, it seems unlikely that Jake and company played some 7th-dimensional chess to short JCCJR of his paycheck.
Nonetheless, they stood to benefit greatly from the fight taking place, even after paying JCCJR in full.
Presumably, Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, his co-founder at Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), profited from the fight happening, although the fans certainly didn’t.
The day of the bout, MVP claimed they had sold enough tickets at high enough prices to be the highest-grossing event in the history of Anaheim, California’s Honda Center. There was also allegedly PPV money from DAZN streaming the fight.
According to Google, people searched for “Jake Paul” at 2x the rate they searched for UFC 317.
One thing this chart does not tell us is how many of those people actually paid $59.99 to watch Jake Paul vs JCCJR, vs. how many people paid $80 for the UFC.
The critical reaction, from MSM figures such as the UK’s Piers Morgan, was so good that Nakisa is threatening to sue.
It sure was lucky for MVP that ICE decided to hold off on arresting JCCJR until after the fight, but I doubt they had to ask POTUS for any special favors.
I doubt that Jake Paul and Nakisa even had any idea that ICE had a warrant out for JCCJR.
ICE didn’t need the hassle
Even a relentless, habitually self-owning, bad-PR-creation-machine like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has some vestigial sense that there possibly could be consequences for its actions.
I doubt Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and U.S. Homeland Security Advisor, Stephen Miller, wanted to fade the heat with his fight fan boss.
Especially since ICE’s antics in recent weeks have angered the mighty and influential Joe Rogan.
Miller’s too busy spending the $45 billion the US Congress just voted to give ICE to build concentration camps and conduct mass arrests to be in the weeds on something as minor as stopping a terrible Jake Paul PPV before it’s too late.
ICE also has a checkered track record of failing to execute raids in Los Angeles sporting venues (FWIW DHS denied the story below):
Only the most dumbass ICE commander would have attempted a raid at the Honda Center right before the event, but ironically that might have been the best outcome for Jake Paul and MVP.
Sure, it would have cost them the “record-setting gate” and whatever PPV money was made, but the reputational damage that bout did to Jake Paul’s drawing power over the longer term might outweigh the short-term profits.
What am I thinking?
There’s no indication that the audience that tunes in for Jake Paul’s bullshit fights has any object permanence or functional memory, so ignore the above claim entirely.
And besides, the WBA ranked Jake Paul as the #14 cruiserweight in the world after the fight, and he’s now eligible to fight for the title.
I have to admit, the idea of watching Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez beat the ever living fuck out of Jake Paul has appeal.
Never fear, JCCJR is in the good hands of the Mexican government.
ICE didn’t cost anyone millions of dollars.
And Jake Paul is cruising on down the road, looking to parlay his infamy into a title fight that could bring in serious money from Netflix or maybe even on PPV.
Happy endings all around.
Except for one thing, this is bad for the boxing business in a big way.
It might even end up hurting the interests of the big Trump backers at TKO (I wonder if they’ll be as surprised when Trump’s policies fuck them as Elon Musk seems to be.)
The biggest announced fight upcoming in the second half of 2025 is Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford, scheduled to take place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Turki Alalshikh and his promotional partners at TKO might find themselves having difficulty selling out a 65,000-seat stadium to a fan base of Mexican nationals who are expected to travel to see the fight in Las Vegas.
ICE’s expanded $45 billion budget and ability to make arbitrary arrests might keep a few butts out of seats, out of Las Vegas hotels, and leave a lot of money looking for somewhere else to go.
Nate Wilcox founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.
"Ask any DHS or ICE official and they'll explain what happened."
Unfortunately, I say as a true-born American patriot, ex-paratrooper, and ex-Republican: I would no longer trust a single word anyone in DHS or ICE said, unless that was: "PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST! GET THE FUCK IN THE CAR NOW!"
"There are places where cops are respected, Captain. But in those places you wouldn't be a cop." (Raymond Chandler, in "The Long Goodbye" (1953))
These articles make me laugh. You don’t need “inside information” to understand what happened here. Ask any DHS or ICE official and they’ll explain what happened.
As DHS advised, and the article points out, an administrative order was given on the 27th (Friday) declaring him removable. Keep in mind, he did not have warrants, he wasn’t being charged with a crime. He’d also been in the country since August of 2023—nearly two years. So, he’s not considered a national security or safety threat to the United States.
The ERO Field Office received the communication and executed the apprehension three days later. Again, nothing at all unusual given to the circumstances.
This pig Lou DiBella is full for shit. It’s also laughable considering the same people criticizing the ICE/ ERO timeline would suggest Trump was using his office to benefit Dana White had ERO picked him up before the PPV event.