Chamillionaire took to Instagram this week to speak out about immigrant rights and to issue statements on solidarity after drawing attention for his efforts to help the family of a man who was recently deported.
Last week, journalist Niraj Warikoo tweeted a screenshot of an email the rapper sent him offering to assist Jorge Garcia’s family.
This is not a joke. I actually got an email yesterday from rapper Chamillionaire (of Ridin’ Dirty fame, the song that goes, They see me rollin,’ they hatin’) after he read my story on Jorge Garcia being deported. He wants to help him. pic.twitter.com/ZBJvcbTKRf— Niraj Warikoo (@nwarikoo) January 18, 2018
Warikoo wrote about Garcia, who was deported last Monday after spending 30 years in the United States, for the Detroit Free Press.
Garcia's family brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 10-years-old. Although he was brought here as a child, Garcia didn’t qualify for DACA. In a now-viral video, Garcia can seen consoling his wife and children in an airport as he prepares to leave for Mexico.
Chamillionaire read Warikoo's reporting and reached out, hoping to help anonymously. After Warikoo posted his email to social media, however, the rapper felt the need to explain that his motives were pure.
“The reason why I reached out to this journalist because I wanted him to connect me to the family that he just wrote about,” Chamillionaire said in his first video. “The reason I reached out to him using email instead of twitter because I assumed the conversation would be private.”
The rapper said on Instagram that he was not able to connect with the Garcia family until some “wonderful people” on social media linked him to Cindy Garcia, Jorge’s wife. He said they “had a dope conversation,” and urged his followers to donate to the family’s GoFundMe.
Chamillionaire also took time to address the idea that the struggle for black civil rights and immigrant rights are separate.
He told his followers that he is the child of immigrants, and called the idea that Latinx people "don't do nothing for us," (us being black people) a "toxic narrative." He then told the story of how his own success is inextricably tied with Texas' Mexican and Mexican American community.
"'Ridin' Dirty' was produced by two Mexicans. The manager that took it to the top of the charts? Mexican."
"We all have been helped by the Latino community," the rapper declared and went on to say, “If you don’t have respect for immigrants, or you don’t have respect for minorities or you don’t have respect for women, it’s gonna be very difficult for you to understand why the other side needs to be treated fairly.”
