Nine days after being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, 21 Savage has been released on bond, his lawyers said Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Atlanta-based rapper, whose real name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was accused of being illegally in the country from the UK with an expired visa.
An ICE spokesperson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was taken into custody in a "targeted operation" due to being an "unlawfully present United Kingdom national" who came to the US in July 2005 on a visa that expired the following year.
BREAKING- @ICEgov spokesman tells me @21savage was taken into custody by ICE. “His whole public persona is false. He actually came to the U.S. from the U.K. as a teen and overstayed his visa.” MORE COMING
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Abraham-Joseph's immigration lawyers said he was released on bond and granted an expedited deportation hearing.
"He won his freedom," they said.
The decision came shortly after the Grammys, at which he was nominated for two awards and had been scheduled to perform.
His lawyers shared a message on behalf of the rapper to his fans, thanking them for their support.
"He says that while he wasn’t present at the Grammy Awards, he was there in spirit and is grateful for the support from around the world and is more than ever, ready to be with his loved ones and continue making music that brings people together," they said.
"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. And he asks for your hearts and minds to be with them."
The case garnered plenty of industry attention from his peers, including Jay-Z, Cardi B, Dua Lipa, Post Malone, and others who publicly criticized the rapper's arrest and incarceration. 21 Savage's attorney also pointed out that five days before the arrest, the rapper dropped a new version of his song "A Lot," which condemns US officials for separating immigrant families at the border.