21 Savage in a music video released on February 1, 2019.

Nobody would have ever expected 21 Savage, a rapper of supposed Atlanta origin, to find serious trouble with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but here we are in the wild world of 2019.

Regardless of your thoughts on the rapper, whose full name is Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, recent events between him and ICE have proven to be yet another power grab by the valiant ‘law enforcement’ agency.

26 year old Savage was arrested early on February 3rd as part of a “targeted operation with federal and local law enforcement … in metro Atlanta” coordinated by ICE. Later, it was revealed that “Mr. Abraham-Joseph was taken into ICE custody as he is unlawfully present in the U.S. and also a convicted felon. Mr. Abraham-Joseph initially entered the U.S. legally in July 2005, but subsequently failed to depart under the terms of his nonimmigrant visa”, with his country of origin being the United Kingdom.

Now I’m gonna make a bold claim, and I know you’ll think “they would never do this”, but stay with me here: ICE only performed this operation to make a big show out of it as a pretty disgusting power grab.

Let’s begin by examining the situation. According to ICE, Savage entered the United States legally in July 2005, when he was 12 years old, and failed to depart under the terms of his nonimmigrant visa in July 2006, thereby becoming unlawfully present. Interestingly enough, before his felony charges in 2014, Savage would have qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which would have allowed him to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit in the U.S., though it is unknown at this time if he ever applied or was actually part of the program. This DACA fact only adds to the motives of ICE purposefully detaining him to display their power.

We find more confusing turns in this case when we take into account Savage’s 2014 felony charges, which came from an incident where a “contraband-filled car he was riding in got pulled over.” Savage somehow survived the situation without question of his legal status even though it is common for an immigrant under any early legal status (such as holding a visa or green card) or illegal status to be considered for deportation following such charges. We could spend time questioning why Savage’s British origins weren’t revealed in 2014, but I have a better question- why now?

Two days before his detention, Savage released the music video for his song A Lot off of his recent album release I Am > I Was. Included in the music video was a new verse, not contained in the versions of the song found on streaming services, that ended with the following lines:

Lights was off, the gas was off, so we had to boil up the water (Straight up)

Went through some things, but I couldn’t imagine my kids stuck at the border (Straight up)

Flint still need water (Straight up), n****s was innocent, couldn’t get lawyers (On God)

Did you catch that? This new verse, among other things, included a direct dig at ICE for detaining children at our southern border. The timing of his days-later arrest and ICE’s past of detaining and deporting prominent immigration activists has led to a worrying conclusion- 21 Savage’s February 3rd detention was probably a direct result of his speaking out against their abhorrent practices. Let me remind you, this is a government agency that exists in the United States in 2019, not in 1939 Germany.

If that alone doesn’t convince you, we can also examine the actual words of an ICE spokesman following the arrest:

His whole public persona is false. He actually came to the U.S. from the U.K. as a teen and overstayed his visa.

I don’t know about you, but to me that statement sounds incredibly unprofessional, and honestly points in the direction of ICE purposefully aiming to harm Savage’s career. Knowing how important image is in the music game, especially to someone claiming to have grown from the famed Atlanta rap scene, ICE made sure to unfairly assert that his “whole public persona is false.” Add these actions to the fact that they arrested this Atlanta rapper in Atlanta on the day that the Super Bowl takes place in Atlanta and thus all eyes are on Atlanta, and you have some pretty damning evidence that ICE committed to this operation as a frankly terrifying display of power.

I personally hope this turns out well for 21 Savage, but it’s hard to ignore the sad possibility that deportation is not off the table for him. As this is a developing story and some details are still unknown, I’d also like to mention that some rumors are buzzing that this is a “misunderstanding” or a “case of mistaken identity” and that the targeted operation by law enforcement was actually aimed at another person he was in a car with, but I want to be clear: even if it turns out Savage is 100% born in America and this was all some big “error”, it is still hard to see this as anything other than a scare tactic directed at people of influence who speak out against ICE’s misdeeds. At the end of the day, Savage has had to endure ICE custody while watching his public persona get trashed and made fun of as phony, even if it’s not true- these are so clearly moves to intimidate him. Even if they will claim it was “mistaken identity”, I don’t buy that they wouldn’t have done serious background checking to make sure they were right before literally arresting a public figure.

I’ll leave you with the words of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on why we should abolish ICE:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez visiting an ICE facility at the border in 2018.