21 Savage is keeping his immigration reform efforts going, as the rapper recently donated $25,000 to the Southern Poverty Law Center- the same nonprofit legal advocacy organization that helped him earlier this year when he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to the 26-year-old rapper’s attorney, Charles Kuck, the donation will go towards aiding immigrants currently held in detention centers in the deep South, by helping them to obtain legal counsel.
“21 Savage is making this donation public because everyday Americans need to know that ICE is using civil immigration detention as a weapon against immigrants, many of whom, like 21 Savage, have relief from deportation and are able to fix their immigration status,” Kuck said in a statement, obtained by NBC News.
READ MORE: In new interview, 21 Savage opens up about immigration issues that seemed insurmountable
Willemijn Keizer, the organization’s director of institutional giving, told NBC that the the rapper’s donation will provide “vital resources,” for detainees.
“Only one in six immigrants detained in the Southeast has access to an attorney in removal proceedings. For an immigrant in detention, that legal representation can mean the difference between winning or losing their case — between staying with their family or being forced to return to a place that is no longer home,” Keizer said in a statement.
Back in February, the Britain-born Savage, real name She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was arrested and detained by ICE after officials said he overstayed his visa.
READ MORE: 21 Savage arrested again in Southern Georgia shortly after release from ICE custody
Although the British national was brought to the United States legally back in 2005, ICE officials claimed the rapper’s visa expired the following year, and has since been left without legal status. Legal representatives for the rapper claim that Savage has an application pending for a US visa “as a victim of a crime,” but not much has been revealed as to the circumstances surrounding his application.
On February 12th, the rapper was was released on bond from a Georgia detention center, just a little more than a week after his arrest. According to NBC News, his case is still pending with the immigration court.
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