The 21 Savage immigration saga continues to unfold. Since the rapper was released from the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on February 13, the public has been gaining more information about the precise circumstances that landed the 26-year-old in his current position. We learned that the artist was in fact born in the UK and had overstayed his visa as a child. We also learned that, prior to his arrest, Savage had attempted to apply for a new visa. A common thread throughout all these developments, however, was the belief that Savage’s arrest had been a pre-meditated and politically motivated.
In an interview published last week in The New York Times, Savage’s lawyer Dina LaPolt all but confirms this. According to the LaPolt, as early as three days prior to his arrest, they had reason to believe federal authorities were searching for the rapper. “We had heard that they were looking at him,” she told the Times. As many at the time of Savage’s arrest suspected, the sudden attention ICE was paying to the rapper had to do with a recent nationally televised performance of his. “There was scuttlebutt after the Jimmy Fallon show” coming from “some very high levels in Washington,” LaPolt continued. LaPolt was so concerned about her client’s safety that she sent another attorney from her firm to Atlanta to try to convince Savage to skip his Super Bowl weekend performance dates and accompany her back to California. That Sunday, the rapper was arrested.
Savage will now have to potentially wait for more than a year until his next hearing. For now, the rapper seems to be keeping a fairly low profile. You can read a full timeline of the events concerning his ongoing situation here.
