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Mexican singer Julion Alvarez should have been culminating his 4218 Tour with his
band in Arlington, Texas this past Saturday but there was one teensy problem that
stopped the party — those pesky ICE agents.
The U.S. Department of State, the lead US foreign affairs agency, has yet to reveal why
exactly Alvarez and his band were denied re-entry to the U.S., after having several
shows in Mexico, but Alvarez had every intention to play to a sold out show of nearly
50,000 people at SoFi Stadium. “This show was set to be an unforgettable night for
fans,” Álvarez’s team said in a statement.
All tickets will be honored when or if the concert gets rescheduled and those who can’t
attend the new date will receive a full refund.
Alvarez already performed four sold out shows at SoFi in April so what could have
happened between L.A. and Mexico that caused such a ruckus?
Upon further research, reports revealed that Alvarez was accused by the U.S. Treasury
Department of having ties to drug trafficker, Raul Flores Hernandez, and sanctioned
Alvarez under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act back in 2017. While
Alvarez admitted to meeting Flores at a former night club in Guadalajera (Mexico), he
denied knowing Flores was involved in any drug dealing. Alvarez thought he was
meeting a club promoter at the time. In a 2017 press conference, Alvarez declared that
he had “no information of frozen assets or any legal action. If my attorneys say I have to
testify in the U.S., I will go.” Despite not facing a public trial, the U.S. revoked his visa in
2017 and reinstated it in 2022.
Without any true evidence that Alvarez was colliding with Raul Flores Hernandez
involving drug trafficking specifically, this pattern of revoking his visa is fishy as hell. And
as the Latino community continues to be targeted and detained by ICE, even those who
are citizens, I don’t feel amiss in the suggestion that Alvarez might be under attack for
other reasons. Racism in the U.S. against Black and Latino communities is a tale as old
as time, and we know Texas is closer to the Mexican border than Inglewood could ever
be so the truth about what really happened with his visa raises eyebrows for me.
We’ll have to wait for more information to be released but still, as a frequent concert
goer myself, the pain of planning outfits, trips and sometimes even submitting requests
at work for paid time off–only to have the show canceled–is a feeling that causes me to
empathize.
Nevertheless, Alvarez won an American Music Award on Monday (May 26th) as the fan
choice for Best Latin Duo or Group, so his fans have his back, no matter how this plays
out.
