Mexican Fighter Fights to be an American, Green Card
Dan Rafael on ESPN reports on an extraordinary story from professional boxing. Moost boxers fight for money and world titles. Lightweight contender Ray Beltran fights for much more.
Born into poverty in Los Mochis, Mexico, Beltran and his family slipped across the Mexican border when he was 16 in order to make a better life for themselves in the United States. .
Beltran has been in the United States since, but is now here legally thanks to a P1 work visa, which allows him to pursue his boxing career as an athlete who is “internationally recognized with a high level of achievement, evidenced by a degree of skill and recognition substantially above that ordinarily encountered so that the achievement is renowned, leading or well known in more than one country.”
That visa will expire in about two and a half years, at which point Beltran would have to return to Mexico. Besides impacting his career, it also would potentially tear apart his family. Beltran is married with three young children who were born in the United States and thus are U.S. citizens.
Beltran seeks to earn his permanent resident status as an “extraordinary athlete,” which would allow him to received an EB-1 green card available to certain sports figures, entertainers, and Nobel Prize winners. If Beltran gets his green card, he can remain in the United States.
In his quest to remain in the United States, Beltran won a split decision last night (in a match in Los Angeles that this viewer thought was one-sided in Beltran’s favor).
KJ