21 Savage Responds to Arrest By ICE and Confirms He Was Born in the UK

To the surprise of many, rapper 21 Savage, whose legal name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was taken into custody by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on February 3, 2019. According to ICE, the 26-year-old Grammy-nominated rapper is actually a United Kingdom citizen and was arrested for overstaying his visa. The arrest was a “targeted operation” that happened while Abraham-Joseph was in Atlanta, Georgia, and ICE has yet to release the rapper from detainment.

An article by Pitchfork reports an ICE representative stating that Abraham-Joseph was “unlawfully present” in the States during the time of his arrest, and had always been since his nonimmigrant visa expired in 2006. On top of that, the rapper was also convicted of drug related offenses in 2014 in Fulton County, Georgia.

21 Savage has since responded to his arrest through his attorney Charles Kuck. HuffPost reports that Kuck released a statement confirming his client’s British nationality and labeling his arrest as a “civil law violation” that is an attempt to “intimidate him into giving up his right to fight to remain in the United States.” Kuck explained that Abraham-Joseph had applied for a U visa, a specific nonimmigrant visa that is reserved for victims of crimes, in 2017, and he emphasized that the rapper never attempted to conceal his immigration status from authorities.

21 Savage will continue to fight for himself and his family, and they will continue to exercise their rights to remain in the United States. In light of all of this, Congressman Hank Johnson of the state of Georgia, where 21 Savage has ties to, released a letter in support of the rapper’s release, stating that he is an “outstanding figure” in the Atlanta community who supports the “betterment of [their] youth.”