By Staff Writer James Mellen III.
Atlanta rapper 21 Savage is apparently a citizen of the British Empire and has been detained by ICE for overstaying his visa. He is currently in a detention facility and is facing a ten year ban from the United States.
21 Savage was born Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph to a pair of Afro-Caribbean parents in 1992 in the city of London. His parents separated in 2005 and Abraham-Joseph legally immigrated to The United States with his mother at the age of seven. In 2006 his family’s visa expired and he became an illegal immigrant. In 2017 he applied for a “u-visa” or a visa for violent crime victims, as he was shot six times in 2013.
This is contrary to the information that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is providing for the rapper’s status, ICE claims that he immigrated here at the age of 14, not seven.
ICE also claims that the rapper has had a previous immigration conviction which his legal team denies. One crucial disagreement from the legal team and ICE is whether or not the rapper is entitled to bond.
Savage is currently being represented by Alex Spiro who was hired by Jay-Z in order to best defend Savage. Jay- Z is among a growing list of prominent names to mention the detention of Savage, including Cardi B Offset and NY rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted lyrics from Savage’s song “A lot”; “The gas was off, so we had to boil up the water/ Been through some things so I can’t imagine my kids stuck at the border.” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted these lyrics in order to show solidarity with the rapper.
Now, I’m not one for conspiracies, but Savage did perform this song on Jimmy Fallon just a few days before he was detained by ICE.
Savage is currently being held in one of the worst detention centers in the country, Irwin County Detention Center, where between it and it’s sister detention center, Stewart Detention Center, at least three detainees have died in the past two years. Solitary confinement is also regular practice at this detention center.
Savage’s legal team have faith that despite the challenges facing Savage’s case that he will be allowed back into the United States.
However, the story of what happened to Savage is much more like the average immigrant story than many people may think and brings light to the systemic racism at work in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
One of the most obvious misconceptions made by the majority of the public is that immigration reform is preventing people from crossing the border illegally. This is by absolutely no means the goal of in theory or practice of ICE. ICE’s mission is and has been from the start was “a 100% removal of all removable aliens.” This inherently must include the 40% of illegal aliens that are in The United States through the overstay of a legal visa.
The country that provides the United States with the most aliens who have overstayed their visa is Canada, yet Canadian deportation makes up for only .2% of the deportations that occurred in 2013. This is because of the racial profiling tactics that are regularly used by ICE.
They aren’t actually looking for immigrants, they’re looking for people who aren’t white.
While it may seem like these types of laws are far and detached from us up north, there are plenty of good people in the Bristol, Plymouth, and Barnstable counties getting arrested for overstaying their visas.
Another advertising tactic used by Trump and ICE to justify the violence that they implement on immigrants is the justification that the people they detain are criminals. This is scare tactic that wins big in this country by pandering to racist America.
21 Savage’s arrest is another example of this type of fear mongering.
The conservative news isn’t covering Savage’s arrest as the arrest of a rags to riches turned tremendous benefactor of the Atlanta community, they’re covering it as the deportation of a formal gang member.