21 Savage Thinks Immigrant Children Should Automatically Be Citizens

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21 Savage Speaks On His Stance Regarding Citizenship For Immigrant Children

21 Savage went through some immigration troubles of his own earlier this year, so on Thursday, he was honored by the National Immigration Law Center. When speaking on the subject, the rapper stated that children who were brought here by their parents and live illegally in America should automatically become citizens.

“When you’re a child, you don’t know what’s going on,” 21 Savage said to  the Associated Press. “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.”

This comes after 21 was forced to spend 10 days in an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center after he was arrested as part of a sting operation in Atlanta. His visa expired in 2006, unknown to him.

Savage moved to America from the U.K. when he was only 7-years-old. He added more insight into his opinion of immigrant children living in America, stating something pretty controversial: “I feel like we should be exempt. I feel like we should automatically become citizens.”

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

21 Savage was honored by the NILC for advocating immigrant justice, also speaking on the increasingly difficult process of obtaining a visa.

“They just lose hope,” the rapper said of his fellow immigrants. “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… We got a fight that we need to continue in this country. It ain’t over yet. “

What do you think of 21’s idea that children brought here by their parents should be granted citizenship?