21 Savage says ICE enforcement ‘broken’
After spending nine days in ICE custody, rapper 21 Savage told his side of the story Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America.
The Atlanta musician who was born in England aimed to clear up misinformation about his case following his Feb. 3 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He was apprehended because he allegedly overstayed a visa that expired in July 2006.
“I was just driving. And I just seen guns and blue lights. And, then, I was in the back of a car. And I was gone,” he said on Good Morning America. “They didn’t say nothing. They just said, ‘We got Savage.’ ”
Savage, 26, whose real name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, told ABC News he arrived in the U.S. when he was 7 years old and attended first grade in Atlanta, so he has limited memories of his native country. He left briefly in 2005 to attend his uncle’s funeral, then returned that same year.
“I didn’t know what a visa was,” he said. “I was 7 when I first came here. I knew I wasn’t born here, but I didn’t know what that meant as far as when I transitioned into an adult, how that was going to affect my life.
“I wasn’t hiding it,” he added, “but it’s like, I didn’t want to be deported, so I wasn’t going to come out and be like, ‘By the way I wasn’t born here,’ to the world.”
The rapper considers himself a “Dreamer,” a person who has lived in the U.S. without official authorization since coming to the country as a minor.
“I don’t think the policy is broken,” he said. “I feel like the way that they enforce the policy is broken.”
The rapper has gained highprofile support from the music industry, namely that of rapper Jay-Z, who provided additional legal assistance to 21 Savage.
Savage was supposed to attend the Grammy Awards last Sunday, where he was nominated for two awards and was set to perform the hit “Rockstar” with Post Malone.