Fighting for a green card: Boxers find themselves on the front lines of America's battle over immigration
- Many boxers are outspoken about immigration because they're close to the issue and they're unshackled by corporate interests that could prevent their advocacy
- Intended for 'priority workers,' the EB-1 visa (known as the 'Einstein visa') offers residency to a professional who possesses an 'extraordinary ability' in a field. Several boxers have attempted to obtain it, but the standards are subjective
- Back when she was a model known as Melania Knauss, the First Lady was granted an EB-1 visa based on credentials including runway shows, a cigarette billboard in Times Square, and a shot in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition
- Mexican-born Ray Beltran recently won the WBO lightweight crown, which could help him and his wife to stay in the United States with their three children
- Unless a deal is reached on DACA, Egyptian boxer Ahmed Elbiali could be deported even though his parents are residents and his sister is a U.S. citizen
- Several boxers of Mexican descent have been vocal critics of the President Donald Trump, who aims to end illegal immigration and limit legal immigration
- A promo for a bout between Mexico's Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. featured both fighters running through Trump's proposed border wall
Light heavyweight boxer Ahmed Elbiali legally immigrated to the United States from Egypt on his father's work visa when he was four-years old.
His parents have their green cards, his younger sister is an American citizen, having been born in Florida, and the 27-year-old Elbiali even has a social security number.
And when it comes to the national debate about immigration in America, Elbiali can appreciate the position of hard liners, like President Donald Trump.
'I understand what he's trying to do,' Elbiali told Dailymail.com. 'He's just trying to filter out the country, carve it down a little bit and give the U.S. people more jobs and more opportunities than immigrants.'
Egyptian native Ahmed Elbiali (left) is now considered an undocumented immigrant, even though he entered the U.S. legally on his father's work visa when he was just four-years old
Ahmed Elbiali's parents received a green card through his mother (left) in 2016. Unfortunately, even though he's been in America since he was a young boy (right), Elbiali was not covered by the green card because he was already over 21 when his parents' status changed
But despite being rooted in Florida, where he has lived for 23 years, Elbiali is actually in danger of being deported.
'I became illegal because I stayed here past my visa,' said Elbiali, whose DACA status is set to expire in November of 2019.
A self-described DREAMer – one of around 700,000 undocumented immigrants who have been allowed to stay in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals act established by the Obama administration in 2012 – Elbiali could be forced to leave the U.S. if the Trump White House succeeds in its stated mission of ending the program. (DREAMer specifically refers to the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act that was originally proposed in 2001 but was never passed by congress; the term has since been broadened by many to include DACA recipients).
The threat of deportation may have temporarily subsided after February 26, when the Supreme Court declined to immediately hear the White House's appeal of a federal judge's ruling requiring the government to maintain the program for the time being. Trump gave congress a sixth-month window to find a legislative solution when he announced his intention to end DACA back in September. Without the Supreme Court's denial, March 5 would have marked that deadline.
But this brief stay hardly cements Elbiali's future in the U.S., and until that happens, the aspiring titlist remains one of the sport's countless immigrants caught up in the country's most divisive issue.
'Boxing has always been a melting pot,' promoter Lou DiBella told Dailymail.com. 'It's been the American dream. It's been the underclass who fights… It's people fighting their way out of something for a new life or a new country.'
The American boxing scene was dominated by Irish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants for much of the first half of the 20th century. And although the exact demographics have changed, boxing remains a unifying pastime for expats because, unlike football or baseball, foreigners are often familiar with pugilism before they immigrate to the United States.
Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko (left) and Mexico's Leo Santa Cruz (right) are just two of many foreign-born boxing title holders who train in California
Kazakhstan's Gennady Golovkin - who trains at his own complex in Big Bear, California - has become one of the sport's biggest draws by selling out arenas in Las Vegas and New York
Although he's from Kazakhstan, Gennady Golovkin has picked up fans of Mexican descent in America because of his fighting style, which he borrowed from Mexico's long boxing tradition
The upper echelon of the sport reads like roll call at the United Nations.
Even though America is home to most of the top prize fights – which typically take place in Las Vegas, New York, or Los Angeles – only 12 of the world's top 50 boxers are actually American, according to BoxRec.com's 'pound for pound' rankings. Another eight are expats currently living in the United States.
California alone boasts such highly-rated active fighters as Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko and Viktor Postol, Mexico's Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares, Russia's Murat Gassiev, undefeated Lithuanian contender Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and Kazakhstan's Gennady Golovkin.
Golovkin, who trains in Southern California, has actually gained a Mexican-American following thanks to his fighting style, which he adopted from Mexico's long tradition of knockout artists.
Brooklyn, meanwhile, has become a hotbed for developing fighters from the former Soviet states, such as Georgia and Kazakhstan.
And because boxers aren't shackled by corporate public relations interests, they have greater freedom to address controversial issues, like immigration, without fear of retribution from sponsors or even fans.
According to promoter Lou DiBella, boxers have greater freedom to discuss politics because the sport does not have a 'constructed administrative structure'
'There's not a Muhammad Ali,' said DiBella, referring to the late legend who was denied a boxing license after refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. 'But there are a lot of fighters that are cognizant of what's going on in the world around them. Fighters have an ability to say what they feel more than another athlete who has a more constructed administrative structure in the sport.'
That freedom has been expressed in a number of ways.
For instance, last May's highly publicized clash between Mexican superstars Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was promoted with a commercial depicting both fighters running through and annihilating Trump's proposed border wall. The fight itself was 'an indirect hit to Donald Trump,' according to its promoter, legendary Mexican-American boxer Oscar De La Hoya.
'A lot of people feel proud that two Mexican nationals can come to Las Vegas,' De La Hoya said at the time, 'and have such an economic impact in our society.' (The fight generated over 1 million pay-per-view purchases for HBO, which translates to about $80 million in broadcasting revenue alone)
Last year's fight between Mexico's Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (left, right) was promoted in an ad depicting each fighter running through Trump's proposed border wall
Canelo is a Mexican citizen and not known for being political, but that did not stop him from appearing to obliterate Trump's $25 billion proposed border wall in an ad for a fight last year
One of the sport's elites and the son of Mexican immigrants, WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia thinks it is incumbent upon fighters in his position to speak out on the subject.
'If an immigrant is not heard, maybe someone else will hear us,' Garcia told Dailymail.com. 'We speak on their behalf.'
The issues at play aren't new to Garcia.
His father spent over 20 years working in the California strawberry fields because, as a non-citizen, better opportunities were not available to him.
'People don't ever realize where that fruit came from or what it took to get served on your plate,' said Garcia, who remembers his father going to the gym wearing strawberry-stained clothes. 'Somebody, most likely an immigrant person, was there working, picking those vegetables and those fruits.'
Hoping to foster a better relationship between law enforcement and his largely-immigrant community in Oxnard, California, Garcia actually envisioned himself as a police officer in his early 20s.
Born in California, Mikey Garcia's parents worked local strawberry fields, which is one reason the WBC lightweight champion has been a vocal advocate for undocumented immigrants
Mike Garcia can remember his father and trainer Eduardo (pictured) going to the gym with strawberry stains on his clothes. Now Eduardo is an American citizen
He even went through the Ventura County Police and Sheriff's Reserve Academy in 2010 before his boxing career took off.
'The majority of the times, people's experiences with law enforcement is negative - either an accident or something with domestic violence, something negative - so they have a bad feeling about law enforcement,' Garcia said. 'But there's a lot more that goes to it. They serve and protect the community. A lot of things they do, people don't get to see unless you're there first-hand, which is why I did the police academy.'
Like Garcia's father, who is now a U.S. citizen, Mexican-born former featherweight champion Abner Mares was undocumented when he arrived in America as a child.
But even though he's now a legal resident who will be allowed to file his citizenship paperwork next year, the outspoken super featherweight title contender has made it his mission to raise awareness about the consequences of the White House's anti-immigration positions.
Not only has he seen friends and extended family deported, but Mares lives in constant fear of the same happening to his sisters, who are DREAMers.
'I lived in a world which was tough,' Mares told Dailymail.com, 'and now it's even tougher.'
It's not just Trump's $25 billion proposed border wall.
There was a 171 percent increase in the number of non-criminal individuals arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the first year of Trump's presidency compared to the final of the Obama administration, according to CNN.
And the White House has taken aim at legal immigration, pushing to end the visa lottery, which granted residency to 50,000 immigrants over the last five years.
According to the Cato Institute, Trump's proposals would reduce legal immigration by 44 percent, or by about 500,000 people annually. That means 57 percent of the 44 million immigrants admitted to the U.S. legally since 1965 would have been blocked from entering the country.
It currently takes natives of Mexico as long as 20 years to receive a visa, according to the State Department. Yet, Trump's proposals could make that wait even longer, with a potential 58 percent reduction in Hispanic immigration, according to the Center for Global Development.
Although he's a full-time resident of Mexico, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez is a major draw in the United States because the country has so many boxing fans of Mexican descent. In September, he and Gennady Golovkin fought to a draw at a sold-out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas
Abner Mares (left) warms up at the City of Angels Boxing Club for a 2016 bout fight against Jesus Cuellar. The Mexican-born Mares came to America illegally as a child but he is now a resident and hopes to become a United States citizen sometime next year
The fact that the proposals seemed disproportionately aimed at those emigrating from Latin America is not lost on Mares.
'If you're not in it, you're not surrounded by it, you don't know what's going on,' Mares said.
And the issue is larger than just policy issues.
The 32-year-old Mares has seen a dark turn in the attitudes towards immigrants, who have been maligned as drug dealers and rapists by the President himself.
'It's sad that you come in contact with these kinds of people and that we're living in - I'm going to say it - a racist [society],' he said.
Mares believes he faced this prejudice recently while being questioned by an airport border agent as he returned from Mexico City.
Not only has he seen friends and extended family deported, but Mares (seen here after beating Jesus Cuellar for the WBA Featherweight title in 2016) lives in constant fear of the same happening to his sisters, who are DREAMers
'As I'm going through immigration, I show the immigration officer my status, my visa, my residency,' Mares said. 'He looks [at it and asks], "What do you do?"'
Mares told the agent he was a boxer and was surprised by the agent's response. 'Oh, figures,' he said.'
Mares felt the border agent was implying that boxing was the only reason he could be in the country legally.
'I couldn't contain myself,' he continued. 'I said, "[w]hat is that supposed to mean? Regardless of how I got [my visa], I'm a working man. I'm not doing any harm. In a year I'll be a U.S. citizen."'
As Mares explained, the border agent had one last jab to throw.
'He said "Good luck with that. Trump's in."'
Unlike Mares, Elbiali isn't the most outspoken boxer – or even one of the poor immigrants referred to by DiBella – but his specific situation is emblematic of the complexity of the issue.
While he was a legal immigrant when he first arrived to the United States in 1995, Elbiali's status changed when he stayed in the country while his father was between jobs and visas.
Nowadays his entrepreneur father owns several Miami Subs franchises in Florida and leases out a few other properties, Elbiali explained. His parents even obtained their own green cards after Elbiali's mother was sponsored through the company she works for.
But, because he was already over 21 when his parents' status changed in 2016, Elbiali was ineligible for their green card and he's been left in limbo ever since.
Oddly enough, Elbiali's status actually prevents him from leaving this country because he would not be permitted to re-enter.
President Donald Trump has vocally opposed illegal immigration and has proposed measures to reduce legal immigration. In 2001, before they were married, First Lady Melania Trump reportedly earned an EB-1 visa, which prioritizes foreign nationals with 'extraordinary abilities' in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics. Her credentials included runway shows, a cigarette billboard in Times Square, and a shot in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition
This file photo from October shows prototypes of different proposed border walls in San Diego. In January the Trump White House offered a 10- to 12-year path to citizenship for DACA recipients in exchange for approval on his $25 billion proposed border wall
He nearly found that out the hard way back in 2011, when he was interested in trying out for the Egyptian Olympic team, but decided against returning to his home country because of the violence in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Elbiali does have some options, although they all have their drawbacks.
He could marry his longtime girlfriend, but he doesn't want to propose for the wrong reasons. 'I don't ever want to marry my girl for that.'
Elbiali has a sports science degree from Florida International University and he's working towards his masters, which is relevant because full-time employment in that chosen field would likely come with a work visa.
Elbia's recent loss could ultimately preclude him from receiving an EB-1 visa as a professional with 'extraordinary ability'
But not wanting to give up on his life's ambition, Elbiali could conceivably stay in the country on an EB-1 green card - known as the 'Einstein Visa' - if he can prove he has an 'extraordinary ability' in a particular field.
This is the same visa that current First Lady and former fashion model Melania Trump was granted back in 2001, before she married Trump. According to The Washington Post, Melania Knauss, as she was known at the time, was one of only five Slovenians that year to receive green cards under the EB-1 program, which prioritizes foreign nationals with 'extraordinary abilities' in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics.
And if that sounds subjective, it's because it is.
For instance, Melania Knauss's credentials reportedly included runway shows, a cigarette billboard in Times Square, and a shot in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition.
Things might not be so easy for Elbiali.
He had been undefeated before losing to veteran Jean Pascal by technical knockout in December. Whether or not that defeat precludes him from being considered 'extraordinary' is largely dependent on who reviews his case at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
'Sometimes the guy that receives your folder could be a guy that's having a jolly old day or a dude that's just like, 'I can't stand you,' Elbiali said.
That's a problem lightweight boxer Ray Beltran hopes is behind him.
Before winning the vacant WBO lightweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Paulus Moses on February 16, Beltran was afraid he, too, would be at the mercy of one case worker's interpretation of 'extraordinary ability.'
If Beltran gets his green card, he will be able to capitalize on more business opportunities
'I had to win the title that night,' Beltran, a native of Mexico, told Dailymail.com. 'It was always a weight on my shoulders I couldn't take off. Because I'm always worried, thinking about the future, you can't really relax.'
Beltran and his wife have three children between the ages of seven and 14, all of whom are American citizens.
But had the 36-year-old Beltran lost, his case for having 'extraordinary ability' would suffer and he and his wife could have been deported after living in the U.S. since 2001.
And given the subjective nature of the criteria, Beltran's advancing age could be factored into any assessment of his title chances, and by extension, the merit of his case for a green card.
'It's not like I'm 24-years old,' he said. 'I had to really win the title.'
Beltran will soon file his request to have his status changed to a permanent resident.
If he is approved, as his immigration lawyer expects, Beltran can breathe easier knowing he won't have to decide between taking his children back to Mexico or leaving them with friends in the U.S.
What's more, he could finally take advantage of business opportunities that are denied to people without green cards or visas.
And that's ultimately what's at the heart of the issue for immigrant boxers, and just immigrants as a whole.
Beltran understands that the government must 'have regulations for the immigrants; they can't just let everyone in.'
But if he was deported, Beltran would be denied the opportunities that his talent warrants. And in the end, that's why immigrants come to America.
'You can get paid better here,' said Beltran. 'That's why everybody wants to come to the United States, all the boxers.'
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