Rapper Slick Rick
has enlisted the aid of Russell Simmons’ Hip-Hop Summit Action Network to help
prevent him from being deported from the United States. The
organization will hold a press conference Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. in front of the Federal
Court Building in New York. Slick
Rick (born Richard Walters), 41, served five years and 12 days in prison for shooting
his cousin and a bystander in a disagreement in 1990. Under
U.S. law, any foreign national who serves more than five years in prison for committing
a felony faces automatic deportation.In
1995, the rapper won a ruling by an immigration judge allowing him to stay in
the U.S., but in June 2002 Slick Rick was re-arrested after performing on a Caribbean
cruise ship.When
the luxury boat returned to Miami, the Immigration and Naturalization Service
cited a 1997 arrest warrant on immigration violations and charged Rick with voluntarily
deporting himself and illegally reentering the country.Rick
served 17 months in the INS Detention Facility in Bradenton, Fla., before being
released in October 2003. The
rapper’s case has been assigned to Florida’s 11th Circuit Court and he has been
stripped of his status as a permanent resident and once again, faces deportation."With
all of the real and present threats to American society from terrorism, why is
the government chasing this rapper?" asked HSAN Co-Chairman Dr. Benjamin
Chavis. "It’s an obscene misuse of scarce resources."Since
the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. has hardened its policy toward
illegal aliens residing in the country. According
to Jean Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association,
the U.S. is deporting almost 200,000 aliens per year."They’re
breadwinners whose families are U.S. citizens–and in most cases there’s nothing
a judge can do to help them," Butterfield said. "The mentality now is
enforcement only. Discretion has been taken away from the judges and put in the
hands of the executive branch. It’s a damaging policy, which has not made the
country safer. On the contrary, it inflicts untold hardships on our economy, our
families, and our social fabric."According
to Chavis and Slick Rick’s supporters, the rapper is a model citizen who completed
his parole, has not been convicted of any crimes since his original conviction
and is a hardworking family-oriented man. Says
Chavis, "The government is conducting a vendetta against Rick and we’re not
going to stand for it."
