21 Savage donated $25,000 to one of the civil rights group that called for his freedom after immigration officials arrested him in February.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced his donation Friday. The nonprofit legal organization was one of several that advocated for his release after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 21 Savage on claims that he was living illegally in the US.
Charles Kuck, 21’s lawyer, said the gift is meant to help others fight their immigration cases through access to legal counsel. “21 Savage is making this donation public because everyday Americans need to know that ICE is using civil immigration detention as a weapon against immigrants,” the lawyer said.
According to 21’s birth certificate, whose full name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was born in East London to British parents. He didn’t move to the U.S. until he was 7, though he considers Atlanta home.
He failed to renew his visa in 2006, though Kuck said his client filed for a U-visa, designated for crime victims, in 2017. In an interview after his release from a 10-day stint in a Georgia detention facility, 21 Savage criticized ICE for what he called a “broken” way of enforcing immigration policies and promised those still detained he’d do “everything in his power to try and bring awareness to [their] pain.”
“I don’t feel like you should be arrested and put in a place where a murderer would be for just being in the country too long,” he said.
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