Record mogul fights for Slick Rick's release

BRADENTON, FLORIDA - Record mogul Russell Simmons is urging Congress to free hip-hop pioneer Slick Rick the INS jail in Bradenton, Florida, as he fights deportation. <br> <br> The Immigration and Naturalization Service has held Slick Rick -- born Ricky Walters -- since June. The British-born rapper is facing deportation after he pleaded guilty to attempted murder for shooting his cousin and another man in 1990. He spent five years in a New York prison. <br> <br> Russell Simmons, who owns Def Jam Records, called on the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network this week to lobby for Walters&#39; release while he fights deportation. <br> <br> Simmons has met with Congressional Black Caucus Chairman John Conyers of Michigan and has issued a 30,000-signature petition calling for Slick Rick to be returned to his family in New York. <br> <br> After the Board of Immigration Appeals in Virginia denied the rapper&#39;s appeal last month, Walters&#39; attorney filed an emergency motion this week with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. <br> <br> INS lawyers responded to the motion Wednesday. A ruling could come as early as next week.

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