21 Savage attends the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund 15th Anniversary Event at Brooklyn Navy Yard on November 5, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
The law firm representing Atlanta-rapper 21 Savage released a statement via Twitter earlier today saying that he “never hid his immigration status”. The law firm, Kuck Baxter Immigration, also stated that the detention of their client “serves no other purpose than to unnecessarily punish him and intimidate him into giving up his right to fight to remain in the United States.”
Update on “21 Savage” case pic.twitter.com/Mkf32iDgc0
— Kuck Baxter Immigration (@KuckBaxter) February 5, 2019
21 Savage, née She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was detained on Sunday, February 3 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegedly overstaying his visa. Following the arrest, ICE spokesperson Bryan Cox said “his whole public persona is false. He actually came to the U.S. from the U.K. as a teen and overstayed his visa.” In the statement, his attorneys responded to this writing that “he, like almost two million other children, was left without legal status through no fault of his own.”
The revelation has caused a flurry of tweets and memes from the public both reacting to the news about his status and in support of the 26-year-old artist.
From Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, to fellow ATL-rapper Offset, many are taking a stand with the rapper and defending his roots as a trap artist from the city where the genre was born. In response to people saying “he’s not from Atlanta,” rapper Cardi B wrote “he grew up there! his kids and family live there and BLEW UP there with the support of the community he was raised in.”
As of this posting, a petition to stop 21 Savage’s deportation already has over 140,000 signatures.
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Amanda Alcántara is the Digital Media Editor at Latino Rebels and Futuro Media Group.
