Top Democrat Wants English Rapper 21 Savage to Testify in Congress After ICE Detention

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AP Photo/Cliff Owen/Noam Galai/Getty Images
Neil Munro

Democrats want 21 Savage, an English-born rapper who is facing repatriation to his safe European home, to testify about migration enforcement.

“As a successful artist, he is able to give voice to the views of so many Americans who are critical of Trump Administration policies, activity that is protected by the First Amendment,” claimed Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who chairs the Democrat-run immigration committee. She represents Silicon Valley, whose investors and CEOs benefit from a huge flow of cheap migrant workers.

Atlanta resident 21 Savage, who’s reals name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, still faces deportation because he is not an American, but stayed in the United States after his English parents overstayed their visitor visas.

The invite to testify is part of the anti-enforcement campaign by top Democrats and leading immigration lawyers. They expect the media coverage will boost Democrats’ opposition to the enforcement of the nation’s laws, even though the migration laws protect the jobs, wages, neighborhoods, and opportunities of blue-collar Americans. Without enforcement, many millions of migrants would flood into the United States, and would force down wages and spike real estate prices.

His establishment lawyers cheered their temporary success:

For the past 9 long days, we, on behalf of She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, known to the world as 21 Savage, have been speaking with ICE to both clarify his actual legal standing, his eligibility for bond, and provide evidence of his extraordinary contributions to his community and society,” said Charles H. Kuck, Dina LaPolt and Alex Spiro on behalf of She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph.

A critical issue facing the rapper is whether he has triggered the “unlawful presence” rule, which would bar him from entering the United States for 10 years. The lawyers are likely trying to prevent that penalty.

“He will not forget this ordeal or any of the other fathers, sons, family members, and faceless people, he was locked up with or that remain unjustly incarcerated across the country,” the statement said. “And he asks for your hearts and minds to be with them.”

“I hope that because of his status as a public figure we can shed further light on DHS policies and procedures and that She’yaa can appear as a witness before the Immigration Subcommittee to help draw attention to these issues,” said a tweet from Lofgren. Her statement said:

He has considerable ties to the U.S. where he has lived since his family moved to Atlanta when he was young. His entire family still resides, legally, in the Atlanta area, including his mother, sisters, brothers and three young children.

As a successful artist in the music industry, it appears that She’yaa has shown through his career and philanthropic activities that he is a responsible member of our society and is a positive contributor to our country, especially the local Atlanta community.
His detainment in an Atlanta ICE detention center raises a number of questions.

First, that he continues to be held there even though he apparently has been undergoing immigration processes to become a legal resident brings into questions once again the Trump Administration’s policies to initiate drastic enforcement actions that actually interfere with the ability of individuals to follow the law and to obtain legal status as provided by our immigration laws.

Secondly, as it appears he poses no danger to society nor does he appear to pose a flight risk, questions arise as to why this individual remains in custody rather than released on bond while his immigration case proceeds.

Finally, as a successful artist, he is able to give voice to the views of so many Americans who are critical of Trump Administration policies, activity that is protected by the First Amendment. His presence in the United States has been known to the Department of Homeland Security for some time, certainly since his application for a U-visa. Recently he released a song criticizing the activities of the DHS in its treatment of immigrant children at the border. It was 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.

“Often individuals arrested by ICE while pursuing lawful status, individuals who are held without bond who pose no threat nor flight risk, are not well known. I hope that because of his status as a public figure that we can shed further light on the policies and procedures of the Department of Homeland Security and that She’yaa (21 Savage) can appear as a witness before our Subcommittee to help draw attention to these issues.”

The establishment’s economic policy of using legal and illegal migration to boost economic growth shifts enormous wealth from young employees toward older investors by flooding the market with cheap white-collar and blue-collar foreign labor.

That annual flood of roughly one million legal immigrants — as well as visa workers and illegal immigrants — spikes profits and Wall Street values by shrinking salaries for 150 million blue-collar and white-collar employees and especially wages for the four million young Americans who join the labor force each year.

The cheap labor policy widens wealth gaps, reduces high tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high tech careers, and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions.

Immigration also steers investment and wealth away from towns in Heartland states because coastal investors can more easily hire and supervise the large immigrant populations who prefer to live in coastal cities. In turn, that coastal investment flow drives up coastal real estate prices and pushes poor U.S. Americans, including Latinos and blacks, out of prosperous cities such as Berkeley and Oakland, California.

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