Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage, a British citizen, is being held by US officials due to an expired visa.
His real name is Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph and legal team say that he arrived in the US from the UK in 1999, aged seven.. But the USA’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service says that he arrived in 2005 aged 12 and went on to overstay his visa.
He has three children who are US citizens. A statement on Jay-Z’s Facebook page says Savage “deserves to be reunited with his family immediately”.
“His U visa petition has been pending for four years,” Jay-Z’s statement continued.
21 Savage’s lawyers concede that the 26-year-old doesn’t have the correct documents, but say they expired when he was a child, “through no fault of his own”.