21 Savage On Illegal Immigrant Children In The U.S. ‘We Should Automatically Become Citizens’

21 Savage

21 Savage On Illegal Immigrant Children In The U.S. ‘We Should Automatically Become Citizens’

After saving his own immigration issues, rapper 21 Savage said he believes that children who are in the U.S. illegally should be considered U.S. citizens.

Before he accepted an award from the National Immigration Law Center earlier this week, he said,

“When you’re a child, you don’t know what’s going on. Now, you grow up and got to figure it out. Can’t get a job. Can’t get a license. I’m one of the lucky ones who became successful. It’s a lot of people who can’t.”

“When you ain’t got no choice, you should be exempt. It’s not like I was 30, woke up and moved over here. I’ve been here since I was like 7 or 8, probably younger than that. I didn’t know anything about visas and all that. I just knew we were moving to a new place.”

He added that he believes illegal immigrant children who are raised in the U.S. should be an exception to the country’s controversial immigration laws.

“I feel like we should be exempt. I feel like we should automatically become citizens.”

21 Savage

21 Savage’s story became a very public one after he was arrested for having an expired visa. The British native moved to the United States when he was 7 and grew up in Atlanta. He ultimately spent 10 days in a detention center after it was revealed that his visa expired back in 2006. He was reportedly flagged when he applied for a new visa in 2017. But he explained how the process of getting a visa renewed isn’t the easiest. He pointed out that the rigorous steps can cause some undocumented immigrants to not even apply because not having proper papers can

“hang over your head forever. They just lose hope. I feel like kids who were brought here at young ages, they should automatically be like ‘Yeah, you good to stay here, work and go to college.’ It should be nipped in the bud before it gets to a point before you come of age.”

While his experience has turned out for the better, the rapper said there’s still a long way to go.

“We got a fight that we need to continue in this country. It ain’t over yet. Even after everything is cool with me, we still have to fight and help people who can’t fight for themselves.”

Do you agree that children who come to the U.S. as immigrants should automatically be citizens? Tell us in the comments!