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    21 Savage Says He Was "Targeted" By ICE in First Interview Since Detainment

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter:::
    February 15, 2019 at 13:08
    "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 for too long," says the Grammy-nominated Atlanta-based rapper.

    21 Savage made his first public appearance since he was taken into custody with a sitdown interview that aired on ABC's Good Morning America Friday. The interview found 21 detailing his nine days in detainment, why he feels he was the target of an operation and how the immigration enforcement system is broken.

    The 26-year-old said ICE authorities didn't explain to him why he was under arrest when he was pulled over on Super Bowl Sunday. "I don’t even know [what happened]. 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 recalled. "They didn’t say nothing. They just said, ‘We got Savage.' It was definitely targeted.”

    Savage, born Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, said he had no idea how coming to America at 7 years old and overstaying a visa would impact his adult life. "I didn't know what a visa was. I was seven when I first came here. I didn't know what that meant as far as when I transferred into an adult, how that was going to effect my life," the "A Lot" rapper said. "I wasn't hiding it, but I didn't wanna get deported, so I'm not gonna come out and be like, 'Hey, by the way, I wasn't born here.'"

    The London-born MC believes there are better ways to handle immigrations issues, rather than being arrested and thrown behind bars. "I’ve been here 20 years, 19 years," 21 affirmed. "This is all I know, you know what I’m saying? 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 for too long."

    21 Savage missed his Feb. 10 Grammy Awards performance while being detained. Although Post Malone wore a "21 Savage" T-shirt during his performance of their song, “Rockstar,” the awards show was criticized for not making more of a political statement for the detained rapper during the show.

    Watch clips from the GMA interview below.  






    Keywords
    ICE 21 Savage

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