Officers of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have arrested 21 Savage, a rapper, for allegedly overstaying his visa.
The rapper, whose original name is Sha Yaa Bin Abraham Joseph, was arrested on Sunday with officers claiming that he is a British national and not from Georgia as he claimed.
Bryn Cox, a spokesman of the ICE, to a local Atlanta paper that the Grammy award nominee is “an unlawfully present United Kingdom national” who got into the US in 2005 with a visa that expired the following year.
Cox said the rapper was arrested and convicted for felony drug charges in 2014 – but at the time, the US Department of Homeland Security was unaware that he was British.
Describing the arrest as only a misunderstanding, Dina LaPolt, the rapper’s lawyer, said necessary steps are being taken to get 21 Savage out of detention.
“Mr Abraham-Joseph is a role model to the young people in this country, especially in Atlanta, Georgia, and is actively working in the community-leading programs to help underprivileged youths in financial literacy,” he told E! Online.
“We are working diligently to get Mr Abraham-Joseph out of detention while we work with the authorities to clear out any misunderstanding.”
21 Savage is being considered for two Grammy awards having bagged nominations in the Record of the Year and Best Rap/Sung Performance categories.
Demi Lovato, on Monday, deleted her Twitter account after her tweets about the rapper resulted in a backlash from fans.
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