Following nine harrowing and revealing days, 21 Savage has been released from ICE custody today (Feb. 12),
The rapper (real name: She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph) was “granted a release on bond,” Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC, his legal team, announced via Facebook. “He won his freedom.”
On Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 3), 21 was detained by ICE after being accused of overstaying his visa. It was then revealed that the musician, a resident of Atlanta, actually came from Great Britain with his family as a child, and prior to the arrest had been working on attaining a U-Visa.
However, shortly after criticizing ICE during his performance on The Tonight Show, 21 was detained by the very organization. His lawyers, and countless supporters, protested the incarceration.
“This is a civil law violation, and the continued detention of Mr. Abraham-Joseph serves no other purpose than to unnecessarily punish him and try to intimidate him into giving up his right to fight to remain in the United States,” 21’s attorney Charles Kuck said in a statement to the Huffington Post. “Obviously, our client is not a flight risk, as he is widely recognizable, and a prominent member of the music industry. Likewise, Mr. Abraham-Joseph is clearly not a danger to the community, and in fact, his contributions to local communities and schools that he grew up in are examples of the type of immigrant we want in America.”
Unfortunately, his associate Young Nudy — who was arrested on unrelated charges — remains in a Dekalb jail at the time of this piece.
