21 Savage appeared on Good Morning America Friday, giving his first interview since being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In the interview with ABC’s Linsey Davis, the rapper says he feels he was “definitely targeted” by ICE.
Recalling the arrest, Savage said, “I don’t even know, I was just driving and I just seen guns and blue lights. And then I was in the back of a car and I was gone.”
He added that officials didn’t make it clear that he was being arrested, telling Davis, “They just said, ‘We got Savage.'”
The rapper’s attorneys, Dina LaPolt and Alex Spiro, who were hired by Jay-Z to help Savage, also spoke to Good Morning America.
Spiro told GMA, “We believe, honestly, that he was targeted—of course, like they said—and part of the reason, we think, is both because he’s a celebrity, and they can use this as a way to send a message, and also, perhaps, because of his music.”
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“We are in the middle of securing his immigration status,” LaPolt added, “so where he’s a citizen, but it’s very, very complicated, and there’s a lot of steps that we have to go through.”
Savage added that he fears deportation, “but I feel like I done been through so much in my life, like, I learned to embrace the times when I’m down ’cause they always build me up and take me to a new level in life.”
