21 Savage’s three-year immigration case has been put on pause due to an ongoing criminal case against the rapper.
In 2019, the rapper was detained by ICE with agents saying that he was living in the United States illegally, since he was born in the UK and his visa had expired.
Authorities then claimed that Savage threw out a bottle of codeine during the ICE arrest and that they also found a handgun in his vehicle while detaining him.
The DeKalb County, Georgia district attorney who made the claims against the rapper did not formally charge Savage with possession of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm until January of this year.
Speaking to TMZ, 21’s immigration attorney Charles Kuck said that the pending charges in DeKalb have halted the immigration case, adding that his client is allowed to travel domestically but can’t leave the US because he has no visa to reenter the country.
According to the report, there are currently no pending court dates for the criminal case. The rapper is currently slated to play multiple festivals this year, including Coachella and Bonnaroo.
Back in 2019, Savage, real name Bin Abraham Joseph, spoke out about the arrest on immigration charges.
“I was just driving,” Joseph said. “And I just seen guns and blue lights. And, then, I was in the back of a car. And I was gone.
Savage released his last album in 2018 and shared two new singles at the end of last year. Taking to Instagram to announce the new cuts, he wrote: “let’s go into 2022 the right way”.
He added: “They didn’t — they didn’t say nothing. They just said, ‘We got Savage’… It was definitely targeted.”
In December of last year, Savage, whose last solo album was 2018’s ‘I Am > I Was’, shared new music while writing on his Instagram: “let’s go into 2022 the right way.”
The tracks, ‘No Debate’ and ‘Big Smoke’, arrived alongside a joint music video, and were produced by Cardo and Deats and Kid Hazel, respectively.
The post 21 Savage legal battle over immigration status delayed due to pending criminal case appeared first on NME.
