21 Savage‘s four-year immigration battle has finally come to a successful end with the artist being officially granted permanent residency status in the United States.
Savage’s lawyer, Charles Kuck, told The Associated Press that his client has officially become a permanent U.S. resident and may now go overseas, emphasizing the point that the artist had followed “all applicable immigration laws since his initial detention by ICE.”
21, whose real name is Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, age 30, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Georgia (where he had grown up most of his life) back in 2019. His visa, which his mother had acquired for him when he was 7 years old, had apparently expired back in 2006. At the time of his arrest, he claimed to be unaware that he had overstayed his visa. He spent 10 days in jail before he was released with limitations- mainly the limitation that he could not leave the United States as long as his case was pending. His case was delayed due to additional criminal charges as well.
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However, since ICE granted him the ability to travel within the country, the “Rich Flex” singer had been able to tour, most notably accompanying Drake on his “It was All a Blur” tour. After being granted permanent American residency on Friday, 21 Savage joined Drake to perform in Drake’s hometown of Toronto shortly before announcing that he would be returning to his home country of England for a performance.
While going through the immigration process, 21 had become a vocal advocate about allowing people who were brought to the United States as children to become citizens as adults, namely those within the Hispanic community who like him, had mostly only ever known a life in the United States.
