{"id":534509,"date":"2026-01-23T14:43:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/534509\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T14:43:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:43:34","slug":"major-league-baseball-star-detained-by-immigration-officials-prompting-nancy-pelosi-to-intervene-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/534509\/","title":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball star detained by immigration officials prompting Nancy Pelosi to intervene"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco Giants<\/a> star Jung Hoo Lee was detained by immigration officials<\/a>, prompting Representative Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, a California Democrat and former House Speaker, to intervene.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Giants outfielder was stopped by Customs and Border Protection at Los Angeles <\/a>International Airport Wednesday because he forgot documents in South Korea, Pelosi\u2019s office said in a statement shared by multiple news outlets.<\/p>\n

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“Our office is actively working with the Giants organization, our Congressional partners and federal liaisons to resolve this situation and secure Mr. Lee’s release expeditiously,” the two-time former House speaker said.<\/p>\n

Lee was later released, the Giants said, after his \u201cbrief travel issue at LAX due to a paperwork issue.”<\/p>\n

“The matter was quickly clarified with the appropriate authorities, and he has since been cleared to continue his travel. We appreciate the professionalism of all parties involved,\u201d a spokesperson for the team told the media.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

San Francisco Giants star Jung Hoo Lee was detained by immigration officials, prompting Representative Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, to intervene (Chris Coduto\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s agent, Scott Boras, told the San Francisco Chronicle <\/a>it was \u201cnot anything political or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Detentions by federal agents have become a hot-button issue amid President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lee arrived at LAX ahead of an appearance at the Giants\u2019 FanFest in San Ramon on Saturday. The tour, which has multiple stops across Northern California, gives fans a chance to meet players and coaches.<\/p>\n

Lee is of South Korean <\/a>descent, but he was born in Nagoya, Japan<\/a>, where his father, Korean baseball star Jong Beom Lee, was playing for the Chunichi Dragons, according to his MLB profile. During his introductory press conference, Lee called himself \u201cGrandson of the Wind.\u201d His father is known as \u201cSon of the Wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Giants outfielder was stopped by Customs and Border Protection at Los Angeles International Airport Wednesday because he forgot his documents, Pelosi’s office said (Tasos Katopodis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Lee made his debut in the majors in March 2024 after playing for the Kiwoom Heroes in Korea for seven years. Lee agreed to a six-year contract with the Giants worth $113 million in December 2023, ESPN<\/a> reported, citing unnamed sources, at the time.<\/p>\n

The Giants will begin spring training for the 2026 season in Scottsdale, Arizona<\/a>, in early February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco Giants star Jung Hoo Lee was detained by immigration officials, prompting Representative Nancy Pelosi, a California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,70539,70537,162,70538,10880,375,30307,4,22707,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":["post-534509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-giants","tag-baseball","tag-california-democrat","tag-customs-and-border-protection","tag-giants","tag-immigration-officials","tag-jong-beom-lee","tag-jung-hoo-lee","tag-lax","tag-mlb","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfranciscogiants","tag-sf","tag-sf-giants","tag-sfgiants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115944948995220050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}