State Champ Radio immigration
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Slaven Vlasic / Getty / Eric Adams
NYC Mayor Mixxy, aka Eric Adams, continues to strongly push for the title of worst mayor ever.
New York City is facing a lifeguard shortage, which could be an issue for the upcoming Summer season. Mayor Adams has a possible solution for that problem: hiring immigrants because they are “excellent swimmers.”
Adam’s latest boneheaded statement came after being asked about the lifeguard staffing at the city’s pools and beaches potentially being an issue as Memorial Day approaches.
Local news affiliate News 4 New York reports that Adams responded to the question by suggesting the city expedite work licenses for migrants and asylum seekers.
“How do we have a large body of people that are in our city and country that are excellent swimmers and at the same time we need lifeguards — and the only obstacle is that we won’t give them the right to work to become a lifeguard?” Adams said.
The website also notes that Mayor Adams mentioned other “in-demand professions” like food service workers and nurses, which could lead to migrants being fast-tracked to work.
News 4 New York reports that the mayor’s office did not immediately provide any more information when asked for further comment.
X Users Are Clowning Mayor Adams For His Suggestion
Unsurprisingly, Adams is being clowned on X, formerly Twitter, for his latest comments.
“The worst part about Eric Adams is that we all had to vote for him because the other option was a crazy vigilante in a red beret covered in cats,” one user on X wrote.
Mayor Adams is working extremely hard to be a one-term mayor. We hope there are better options when choosing a competent mayor for New York City.
Until that day, you can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Accurate
2. All New York City residents when this man speaks
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Anadolu / Getty
The migrant crisis overtaking the streets of New York (thanks mostly to the Republican governors of Florida and Texas who are bussing their migrants to the Big Apple to make a political point) has a lot of New Yorkers on edge and things are continuing to get more hectic with each passing day.
Weeks after a gang of migrants jumped some police officers in Midtown Manhattan, a cop used a stun gun to subdue a migrant after being called to a migrant shelter in Queens, and the incident was captured on video. According to NYMag, Venezuelan migrant Yanny Cordero was tased and subdued by police this past Friday (March 7) after police were called to the scene in response to an altercation between Cordero and the staff at the migrant shelter.
After police confronted Cordero at the shelter, things escalated and one officer pulled out his stun gun and hit him while he was holding his 1-year-old son.
NYMag reports:
Additional officers intervene and pull him from the elevators, forcing him down on a nearby desk after removing Cordero’s 1-year-old son from his arms. His wife, Andrea Parra, can be heard screaming and attempts several times to put herself between her husband and the officers, only to be pulled away.
Andry Barreto, a Venezuelan migrant who recorded the video, can be heard yelling in Spanish, “This is abuse, brother!” and “Don’t hit him! Don’t hit him!” as officers hold Cordero down and strike him multiple times, after which he tumbles to the ground.
Cordero, who has been staying at the shelter since December, tells the Timesthat the incident began when he returned to the building Friday evening after buying food for his family. He claims employees at the shelter stopped him from taking food up to his room and that, as he struggled to use a translator on his phone, one of the employees suddenly hit him in the face. They later called the authorities.
Both Cordero and his wife were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Their 1-year-old son was taken in by the Administration for Children’s Services but returned to the couple when they were released the following Monday (March 11).
Naturally struggle Mayor Eric “Party Time” Adams defended the officer’s actions saying “This person was under the influence of alcohol, holding a child. Those officers had to get that child from him so that child was not going to be in danger.” Cordero for his part denies being drunk.
Don’t be surprised if more of these kinds of incidents continue to happen because after those migrants beat down those cops in Times Square a few weeks ago, y’all know the NYPD isn’t going to take anything lying down going forward.
According to Drake‘s new song, his frequent collaborator and current tourmate, 21 Savage, has resolved his immigration issues — and a source tells Billboard the rapper is now planning an international tour.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
On Thursday (Oct. 5), Drake released a new freestyle called “8 AM in Charlotte,” and in it reveals — among other things — that 21 Savage has finally received his green card, after nearly being deported in 2019 due to an expired visa. On it, Drake raps: “Savage got a green card straight out of the consulate. Where I go, you go, brother, we Yugoslavian.”
The news comes at an opportune time for the Atlanta rapper as he’ll be helping Drake close out the final dates of his It’s All A Blur North American tour. The tour hits Toronto — Drake’s hometown and also, notably, not in the United States — for shows Friday and Saturday, before wrapping in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 9. At the tour’s previous Canadian tour dates, 21 Savage did not perform. J. Cole and Travis Scott filled in for him at the Montreal and Vancouver concerts, respectively.
21 Savage, who was born in the United Kingdom and legally arrived stateside at age 7, was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in February 2019 after they said he was “unlawfully present” in the United States on a 2005 visa that expired one year after his arrival. In an interview last year with Math Hoffa for the My Expert Opinion podcast, 21 Savage explained how Jay-Z and Meek Mill helped get him out of custody.
“I called Meek while I was in jail and told Meek, ‘Bro, I just got locked up.’ He called Jay-Z, and Jay-Z put a lawyer on my case,” said 21 Savage. “He played a role in getting me out. He ain’t just doing that sh– for anybody just cuz your rap. You gotta be from a certain cloth… I don’t feel like he’s just doing that for anybody. I ain’t Roc Nation or none of that sh–.”
Despite his release, the arrest by ICE agents led to legal proceedings over his immigration status — a process that was further complicated in 2021 when Atlanta-area prosecutors unveiled criminal charges relating to drugs and a handgun allegedly during the 2019 arrest. In an interview with TMZ last year, 21 Savage’s lawyer said those criminal charges had been delaying any resolution of the immigration case.
A representative for the district attorney in DeKalb County, Ga., where the criminal charges were filed, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of that case. 21 Savage’s reps also did not respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Bill Donahue.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
Mayor Eric Adams is under fire for explosive comments regarding the cost of migrants entering New York City from southern states at a town hall.
At a town hall organized by his office on the Upper West Side in Manhattan on Wednesday night (September 6th), Adams delivered his strongest comments to date on the consistent flow of migrants into the city and their impact on its resources. “Never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,” he said before continuing, “This issue will destroy New York City. … All of us are going to be impacted by this. I said it last year when we had 15,000, and I’m telling you now at 110,000. The city we knew, we’re about to lose.”
He spoke about the financial ramifications of migrants coming into the city who get aid through the city’s law guaranteeing a right to shelter for those who are in need. “Every community in this city is going to be impacted,” Adams said before pointing to projections that state that New York City could see sizable budget cuts to cover a $12 billion deficit. To date, 200 emergency sites and traditional city shelters have taken in 60,000 people who have crossed the southern border of the U.S., arriving in the city through buses.
The mayor also voiced his frustrations with President Joe Biden and his administration over not providing enough support to the city during the situation. The White House released a statement defending their response, highlighting the $140 million in federal funds given to the city and New York State, firmly stating that “only Congress can reform our broken immigration system and provide additional resources to communities across the country.”
Adams’ comments were quickly amplified by Republican leaders – some of whom applauded the busing of migrants from Texas by Governor Greg Abbott and other southern states. “It has gotten so bad, even the leaders of Democrat strongholds like New York City and Massachusetts are throwing in the towel,” GOP House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said in a statement to the press. His fellow Democrats and immigrant advocates have chastised the mayor for his comments. “The mayor should know better. The contributions of the immigrant community here have been seismic,” said New York Immigration Coalition executive director Murad Awawdeh.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
Ben Carrillo came to the United States from Guatemala as an undocumented immigrant when he was 15 years old. Today, the young man who crossed the border completely alone is a rising producer and singer-songwriter, managed by Fabio Acosta and Vibras Lab. He has worked with Sky Rompiendo and Mosty, recorded with Thalia and Bruses, opened concerts for Bad Bunny and, this month, released his Broken Hearts Anthem EP.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
But beyond his success, Carrillo hopes that his extraordinary story of work, self-improvement and motivation will serve as an inspiration to other immigrants who arrive in the United States — or anywhere in the world — with only dreams as luggage. “We are not illegal aliens; We’re dreamers,” says Carrillo. This is his story, in his own words.
Thousands of immigrants try to cross the border looking for new opportunities. Many of them die on the way, or are victims of violence and rape, others are caught — and those of us who manage to get there are met with great opposition. There are laws that discriminate against us, isolate us and cut off opportunities, when all we want is to work, to be able to help our loved ones. We are not criminals, nor rapists; we are honest people in search of a better future.
I was born and raised in a beautiful country, Guatemala. But it is a country where violence, corruption and poverty are on the rise. From a very young age I was the man of the house. I had to take care of my brothers, study, work and do all the errands. My father was a musician and choreographer. We had a relationship, but he had no sense of responsibility, and my mother, single with three children, did the best she could. The environment in which we lived and what she experienced caused us to suffer great mental and emotional damage and it is only now that my brothers and I are healing.
When I was 15 years old, my father was killed; my mother only got worse. I saw myself at a point where I no longer had a future in Guatemala: Either I would have to take to the streets to seek opportunities, or I would look for a better future in the United States, as many of my relatives had already done. Getting a visa was impossible. We were poor, I didn’t have my parents. I went to the fields and worked with my grandfather on his farm, cutting sugar cane and bananas. There I raised a little money and at the age of 15, on January 2010, I made the decision to cross the desert to the United States, in pursuit of the “American dream.”
It took all of 30 days. Almost three weeks crossing all of Mexico and five in the Arizona desert, where we went through swamps and ran between highways. After many cramps, blisters, bloody feet, days without food, very cold nights and very hot days, I managed to get there.
I talked to different attorneys to see if there was a way to get documented, but the laws were and still are very rigid. It didn’t matter that I was fleeing my country, for now I had to live here illegally. Years went by. I attended high school in Texas.
There I discovered rock, country music and hip-hop. I learned English and graduated. Up to this point, I was an undocumented immigrant. I suffered racism and discrimination, not only because of my skin color, but also because of my legal status.
I started working illegally washing dishes in a restaurant. It was thanks to that, that at the age of 18 I managed to rent my first apartment and create my music studio. Since I didn’t have money to study, I looked for YouTube tutorials and that’s how I learned to record myself, compose and do my own mixing.
After five years of being illegally in the United States, my uncle heard an ad on the radio that spoke of the opportunity to obtain papers for those who were under 21 years of age and who did not have their parents or who had been abandoned/mistreated. That was my case. And that’s how I got a Green Card, or legal resident status.
That same month, I traveled to Medellín looking for opportunities with different producers. I met Sky Rompiendo, Mosty, Feid, Ovy Oo the Drums, Rolo, Jowan and many people from the industry who were essential to my artistic growth. Now that I had my papers, I was able to return to Guatemala to see my family, and I realized that they were in the same difficult situation that I had been in when I lived there. I knew I didn’t want to put them at the same risk of crossing the desert, but I couldn’t just watch them having such a hard time in Guatemala.
In February 2019, I moved to Los Angeles. I took down all my music from digital platforms, knowing that one day I would return. But my focus now was to help my brothers. I got myself three jobs, working from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., and that same year I became the person in charge of all of them. I rented a house in Guatemala — and with the help of my aunt, my dream of helping them came true, and to date they are under my care.
Now I was at a point in which I didn’t know how I was going to start my musical career again. One day, as I walked into my job as a waiter in Los Angeles, I ran into Fabio Acosta [founder of Vibras Lab and former manager of J Balvin]. I approached him to ask for an opportunity to show him my music and incredibly, he gave me his email. After sending him a lot of music for two years, at the end of 2021 I signed my first management contract with him and Vibras Lab.
I am now 28 years old. Many things have happened that the 15-year-old Ben who crossed the desert could not even imagine. I have a song with Thalia, I sang in front of 40,000 people opening the Bad Bunny concert in Guatemala, and my music is being increasingly recognized.
I look back and I don’t believe all that’s happened to me. I wonder how a boy from Guatemala, with few resources, who lived 5 years illegally in the United States, has achieved all this. It’s not only due to all my effort and dedication, but life has led me to opportunities that are only seen in movies, such as getting my legal residency and meeting Fabio.
I know I have angels watching over me. I know I have a duty, and it is to tell my story and show my Latin people that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what matters is where you are going. Everything that happens to us in this life has a purpose. All trauma can be turned into self-love and love towards others. And with hard work, discipline and perseverance, EVERYTHING is possible.
This is something I write from my heart, for all those people who are crossing or have already crossed, to tell them that YES you can, that the road is not easy, but the reward is sweet. We are not “ILLEGAL ALIENS”, WE ARE DREAMERS. — Ruben Gonzalez Carrillo “Ben Carrillo”
-
Pages
