Privacy

Immigration and 21 Savage

There has been a lot of buzz over the recent arrest of rapper, 21 Savage, this past month. He was born in England and moved to the United States when he was 7 with a visa. The visa expired after a year and it was not reapplied for. However, he does have a currently pending U visa, as a victim of a crime, and he is also supporting his U.S. born children. He claims that he has never hidden his immigration status from the government and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has known his address and his history since he applied for the U visa in 2017. Even with this knowledge, the government did not do anything until shortly after the rapper released a song where he criticized the DHS in their treatment of immigrant children at the border.

There has been some speculation on if the arrest was made by the Trump administration as a message to immigrants and Americans alike. Congresswoman, Zoe Lofgren of California wrote that right after the song was released, “just a few days later that ICE chose to arrest him. Was his arrest in response to his Constitutionally protected speech? It looks like that. If so, that cannot be tolerated in a free society.” If this claim is true it would put into question how protected are the rights in the first amendment.

As an immigrant myself this story prompted me to further look into the rights that I have in this country. I can relate to this story because my family moved to the U.S. when I was 7 years old. I did not know what anything really meant but I know that I had a visa and that the process to obtain a green card was a long one. My green card is valid for 10 years so I would have to apply to renew it 6 months before it expires or look into the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. However, as a green card holder, I do have the rights of the first amendment and many other rights. Green card holders just cannot make campaign contributions or expenditures and participate in political spending decisions.

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/21-savage-released-on-bond-1203137636/