Detained local DJ/artist Kutmah faces deportation on immigration violations

Last week should have been an unimpeded celebration for the local beat scene, with the latest release from standard bearer Flying Lotus garnering raves from national and international press and further solidifying the community’s reputation as having one of the world's most innovative and genre-bending electronic music scenes.

Instead, news broke Friday that agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division had detained Justin McNulty, a well-respected artist, producer and deejay, better known as Kutmah.

Widely considered one of the progenitors of the Los Angeles sound, McNulty, 34, was detained May 5 at his Los Angeles residence. After being interrogated at a downtown facility, he was transferred the following day to a federal immigration center in Chaparral, N.M., and since has been awaiting deportation to Great Britain, his country of birth.

Upon hearing the news, friends and family immediately began circulating an online petition at FreeKutmah.com, articulating the particulars of McNulty's plight and pressing for donations to help defray his legal expenses. Simultaneously, a team began working ceaselessly to enlist media and political support.

"We've been trying to get this on the radar of senators and other political figures. The clock's ticking, and we know that we don't have much very much time," said Daddy Kev, one of the founders of the Low End Theory, who described Kutmah as one of the best deejays to ever play the weekly club night. "He's a selfless person who has spent countless hours doing philanthropic activities. This isn't someone who had a choice about moving here illegally. His mother moved him here when he was 12, and he's built an entire life here."

Jed Leano, the Montrose-based immigration attorney who represents McNulty, planned to file a motion to reopen the case Tuesday morning. Until his arrest last week, McNulty had been in violation of an outstanding order of deportation dating back to 1997. Born to a Scottish father and an Egyptian mother, McNulty and his mother had been repeatedly denied for a green card and had signed an order to voluntarily leave the country 13 years ago.

While Leano declined to offer the specifics of his defense strategy, he said that deportation would not occur until authorities procured a passport for McNulty, a process that he estimated would take approximately two weeks. Authorities at the Department of Homeland Security responded to queries, but did not have enough information about the case to make a statement as of press time.

"Immigrations and customs enforcement don't have the capacity to detain all the people with outstanding orders of deportation. I know that they have yearly quotas to fill, but it remains unclear why they decided to go after [McNulty] and how they found him," Leano said. "He has no criminal record; the only thing he is guilty of is not being born in the United States."

Shortly after the arrest, Twitter and Facebook erupted with messages of support for the embattled beat maker, with everyone from Flying Lotus to BBC radio DJ Mary Anne Hobbs to Stones Throw Records turning Kutmah's plight into a cause célèbre.

"He's more than just an excellent deejay, he's one of the real visionaries of the modern beat music sound," said Daedelus, one of L.A.'s best-known and venerable beat makers. "His Sketchbook night at Little Temple became the template for Low End Theory, and he was one of the early champions of experimental sounds and techniques that are still very much in use today."

One of the few able to speak with Kutmah has been the Gaslamp Killer, nee William Bensussen, one of the resident deejays at Low End Theory.

"I spoke to him spoke to him twice today. He wants to everyone to know that he's on the up and up, but he's suffering. He's basically in jail," Bensussen said Tuesday. "He does some of the most creative mixing and best track selection of anyone anywhere, but he's virtually unknown because he's had to hide due to his [immigration status]."

Another bastion of support for McNulty has been dublab, the nonprofit Internet radio station that has emerged as a major hub for the city's avant-garde and underground music worlds. On Monday, the station devoted the entire day to a "Free Kutmah" slate, playing his mixes and bringing in Daedelus, Gaslamp Killer, Daddy Kev, among others, to spin and share stories about the heavily dublab-affiliated McNulty.

"He loves sharing music so much that he'd get into zones where he'd just make really long and inventive mega-mixes. He'd mix beat music with soulful tunes and psychedelic rock in a way that was very unique and had a mystic quality," said Mark "Frosty" McNeill, one of dublab's co-founders. "We did an Animal Collective after-party recently and he got so into it that he deejayed for six hours straight and blew all the Animal Collective guys' minds."

In recent years, McNulty had forged a lesser-known but equally notable art career apart from his deejay work. Inclined towards intricate woodburns and sketches, McNulty's work frequently appeared with the Hit + Run crew, whose live T-shirt screen-printing events have become a fixture around Los Angeles music events.

"He's a bold and unashamed artist who was one of the pioneers for what we've been trying to do," said Brandy Flower, the co-founder of Hit + Run. "When he ran the 'Sketchbook' night, he incorporated art and music together in a way that no one else had done in this city. There are probably people in this city who can draw or deejay as well as [McNulty], but there's no one that can do both like him. He'd taken a break from drawing in the last few months, but he called me last week before everything went down to tell me that he'd started drawing again. He was really excited."

-- Jeff Weiss

Photo: Justin McNulty, a.k.a. DJ Kutmah. Credit: Joseph "J-Logic" Thompson* 

*UPDATE: The original version of this post improperly credited the photographer. Joseph "J-Logic" Thompson took the shot.

Comments

[Elena Litwinko]

KEEP KUTMAH

[Simple Thoughts]

Border control, Immigration Reform, National Security all have one thing in common: The federal government has to enforce the laws that are written.

"Born to a Scottish father and an Egyptian mother, McNulty and his mother had been repeatedly denied for a green card and had signed an order to voluntarily leave the country 13 years ago."

Observation: He is in the country illegally. He signed a voluntary statement to leave the U.S. of A. He knows he is actively breaking the law. He knows what the repercussions are for breaking the law.

Observation: When a man robs a store, he is breaking the law. He knows he is breaking the law. He knows what the consequences potentially are.

This is not rocket science. The law is the law. Laws broken have consequences.

[cool mo]

absolutely ridiculous to think that the federal government would allow an illegal immigrant to stay in the usa because he is a great DJ and threw great parties. is this petition a joke?

[Justin]

It's ridiculous he has been forced to remain an illegal immigrant here despite spending the majority of his life here and being a productive contributing member of society only to be ripped from what is in fact his home because he was never allowed to become a citizen.

[Mario C]

Immigration Law zealots are generally scared white people who've chosen to forget that they wouldn't be here if someone in their family hadn't immigrated here long ago.

Guess what, dudes? America is not yours. It never has been. It wasn't at the beginning when your ancestors first got here stinking and starving, and it won't be at the end when your daughters get knocked up by brown people.

Stay paranoid and consider yourselves warned.

[ser]

Justin (Kutmah) McNulty is not just " a great DJ [who] threw great parties". We are talking about someone who devotes their life to the Arts. There is little to no funding in this country for cultural infrastructure and people like Justin do it out of the passion/need to share their talents and create working models of their own. By doing so there is a ripple effect, first within the local and then the global community. The impact of the Los Angeles electronic music scene is felt and appreciated world-wide. In Los Angeles (USA) Justin is responsible for creating platforms for artists to practice and build their knowledge and creative output. Stimulating dialogue amongst a new generation of creatives... visual and musical. This is someone who has given immensely to his local community. A Giver not a Taker.

[elle pesh]

@Mario C: That's exactly right. The only way to change immigration laws in a democratic republic is through breeding.

[PhilipShade]

Very astute Mario C. I'm surely your finely formed rhetoric will change people's minds.

If you don't like the laws work to have them changed. Don't wait around till your favorite DJ gets pinched then sign a petition about how unfair things are.

[Beau]

I love how this works: let's have medical coverage like the other countries. Let's have social reform like the other countries. Let's have market reform like the other countries.

But lets not have immigration reform like the other countries. Yes, if the tables were reveresed, and an American was living illegally in a European country, like Great Britain, that American would be deported just as well.

Let me also mention that most countries require you to submit a application for residency that will show you have the means to live for years unemployed should you have to before you can live there. Thats more money than most of us have.

Don't like the laws? Change them. But don't think that American is the big bad guy here. Most countries (including those in Europe and Latin America) have the same laws. The difference is that there isn't a huge influx into those countries from the US.

[Lorenzo]

Yes, the feds have to enforce laws. But I guess they have to have priorities. I do wonder what are these in deporting someone who supports himself through honest work.

From 1997? Can they say this with a straight face? They are actually deporting someone who is in the U.S. from the time he is 12 years old, and who has a deportation order of 13 years standing?

Sheesh, he is American!, more so, than most people who get citizenship (like the Times Square bomber Shahzad).

You rob a store and there is the Statute of Limitations. You squat on a plot of land and after a period you can claim it.

Not so with immigration offences. Thank all hells they are not a crime! If they were, you could claim prescription at some point.

[GridLife]

there is no solution to human migration because we are a migrative species. no amount of artificial lines will stop human need. laws in this or any other country will always have leaks and failures.

supporting deportation is akin to supporting the death penalty on subjective evidence. if you feel this message speaks to you, please don't let your cold blooded nature affect the civic and economic contributions of honest, hard working people.

"We are the people who make the city run, we wait your tables, we make sure your calls go through, we protect you while you sleep. Don't ___ with us."

FREE KUTMAH

[For the arts]

I think one has to look at the logistics--all of which isn't included in this article, but on the freekutmah.com website. Immigration law is black and white, but there is always circumstantial facts by which one ends up at a certain point.

His mother brought and kept him in the states since he was a child and thus it wasn't his choice. Due to the said situation, he established his life by American standards. He has been here for his entire adult life. Yes, if he came here AS an adult, he may have the life skills to live in another place, but that is not the case.

By no means is anyone supposed to get preferential treatment, but this is akin to sending a person out to sea with no oars. He has gone to school here, worked here, has friends, and a girlfriend here in the US. If he is deported, what will be there for him? He will not have the necessary skills and cultural understanding to be moved back to a place he lived when he was 12.

As far as voluntarily signing a document to leave the country, when you are "tween," do you believe you can fully comprehend the statement at hand? It is not illogical to want to stay and, when put under pressure, have to sign such an intimidating document. The facts are facts, and yes he did agree to leave, but there have been moments where children have been granted amnesty and are able to stay in the states. As a "legal" adult though very much still a teenager, is he not allowed the same opportunity?

All music and philanthropic achievements asides, he's a human being that has done everything a proper American should and perhaps even more. The state decides to take everything away from a person who's done no harm, simply because they look at the situation with blinders and only see that he's overstayed his welcome.

[Jon Adams]

I would argue it is immoral to deport someone considering all I've heard of the circumstances.

Regardless... what a huge loss for Los Angeles, California, and the United States if Kutmah can't stay (assuming he wants to at this point).

A founding, incredible, inspirational force at the forefront of an audiovisual movement that has only begun.

[Rockwell]

I know that the time between 13 and 20 were the most significant for me. It's when I found an identity, and moving quite often, occasionally ending up homeless, at 21 I felt like I finally had a home. When I met Justin we both distinctly considered LA's north eastern neighborhoods home (the now quite gentrified Silverlake and Echo Park). This area is now considered a world epicenter for music and art culture pushing property values to triple that from a decade ago - imagine the Echo Park I knew as a teenager, where you could see Black Eyed Peas in the basement of a community center as long as you were careful not to talk to the street dwelling vagrants of one of the most violent neighborhoods in the nation.

Though this kind of contribution doesn't necessarily get recorded, we, who support Justin, believe that this is a vital contributing factor to social and economic improvements. His membership in our community has strengthened our local culture and economy and it's important that we make that statement.

This is Kutmah's home and we are his family. I will do whatever I can to see him stay here... Though I have a feeling that if deported he'll become massively famous and successful. They seem to have far broader appreciation for his kind of genius there.

[PODM]

Immigration Reform is a joke. The Health Care Bill was a joke. Wall St. Reform is a joke.

Both sides have us fighting one another while the oligarchy, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN, picks our pockets.

America is NOW the bad guy, and who's fault is it, partly ours, but mostly "THEIRS". Our forefathers are crying.

The hilarious part of it, which I love the most, is the fact that they, our forefathers, would ALL be for KUTMAH remaining in the U.S.

So in other words... FREE KUTMAH

And to my fellow American brethren, whether your blue or green, wake-the-heck-up. Quit being paranoid and face the reality.

[K.E.]

Look, DJs make a living all over the world. That's how it works. They fly between LA, Austin, Denver, NY, London, Ibiza, Lebanon, Israel, Tokyo, etc etc etc. So don't tell me this guy couldn't make a living in the UK.

Anyone of this guy's supposed stature would no doubt be in exactly that sort of demand and all his DJ friends know the same thing.

I'm sorry his mom brought him here illegally and they got denied, but there are legal, established channels for immigrating. Her bad - she should have applied & doe it the right way - when you com ein illegally, you already look like scofflaws. My own mom's parents immigrated here legally from Canada. My dad's forebears also did, a longer time ago.

I'm for fair immigration, but you have to follow the rules. If you don't like them, write your congressmen, or get a campaign started yourself.

Peace out.

[Steven St Thomas]

He should've been allowed to apply for US citizenship when he turned 18. The choice to become an illegal immigrant hiding under the radar was the choice his mother made for him. Not one he pursued through his own avenues. The signing of any document of deportation issued to a 12 year old child should be seen in this case as "of particular circumstances". He did not choose to be an illegal immigrant. He was made one by someone else's choice. And when he turned 18, he should've been allowed the right to apply for it himself. But how is he supposed to turn up at this application, if he's running from the law.

And in that application for a Green Card, as an adult, his 22 years of contributions to his adopted American community should be looked at and considered in giving him the right to become a US citizen.

[Pax]

So he has been residing illegally in the US, broke the law. Overstayed the agreement to voluntarily leave, broke the law.
Does he pay Taxes ? No he probably does not have a a social, so he works illegally, he broke the law. So he evaded taxes maybe? Could he have broken the law...i guess the Tax issue doesnt matter really. Does it.....for the many lations that come from South America thru Mexico...hard at work in restaurants, Gas stations etc...Yes Of course its OK ! Hey you can cross the border then feel free to drop by...my home is your home...and sure we will pay your bills !!!!!!!!!!!!

[K.E.]

@ Steven St T: Oh yes he did make his own decisions. He could have hired a lawyer and taken care of this any time he wanted to. People do this every day. Instead, he laid low and procrastinated - that was HIS choice.

Kutmah needs to take responsibility for his OWN life, and stop blaming his MOM.

So he goes back to the UK - big deal. I have lots of UK friends who went home b/c they wanted to, they LIKE it there. It's not as if he doesn't speak English - he's a UK citizen for god's sake. They also have one of the biggest DJ scenes around. Not to mention - better health care, and their cushy dole system - he can get paid to sit on his arse!

Trust me, Kutmah will do just fine - especially if he's really the huge worker his friends make him out to be. Personally, I don't see "being a DJ" as a huge contribution to the arts community. Most DJ's I know (and I know a TON) are pretty self-serving.

And if he wants to come back, there are legal ways to do it.

[Bill]

Send him home, he broke the law!

[Don Marshall]

Illegal is Illegal, he knew about it and should have obtained an attorney a long time ago. He has no one to blame but himself. Oh, Oh, Does this make me a racist?

[TranceDanceMurderPants]

Oh yes he did make his own decisions. He could have hired a lawyer and taken care of this any time he wanted to. People do this every day. Instead, he laid low and procrastinated - that was HIS choice.

Kutmah needs to take responsibility for his OWN life, and stop blaming his MOM.

So he goes back to the UK - big deal. I have lots of UK friends who went home b/c they wanted to, they LIKE it there. It's not as if he doesn't speak English - he's a UK citizen for god's sake. They also have one of the biggest DJ scenes around. Not to mention - better health care, and their cushy dole system - he can get paid to sit on his arse!

Trust me, Kutmah will do just fine - especially if he's really the huge worker his friends make him out to be. Personally, I don't see "being a DJ" as a huge contribution to the arts community. Most DJ's I know (and I know a TON) are pretty self-serving.

And if he wants to come back, there are legal ways to do it.

[Mike]

Seems like an open and shut case.

There is no country in the world that would not deport someone in this situation.

There are many legitimate issues surrounding our immigration policy and how it might be changed, but this case does not intersect any of them.

[lee ballard]

Deported to the UK? Must be rough.

[kimba]

You know I understand what ALL of you are saying about the laws But...I KNOW Kutmah..he's a good man, he makes LA special whether you know him or not he's a special part of LA Like Mochilla, Gaslamp Killer, Mear, Man One, Kofie..all the things that you may not know affected you on a daily basis..these Men have been there in your rearview mirror...they paint our walls and they make the beats that run our lives..the People that make LA dope we NEED them...I saw some comments about dj's that I found really disturbing..I LOVE a DJ..he makes me smile even when I'm crying over my recently departed Mom..I play their music, I look at their ART..and I Smile...so if you think that this is a Simple Immigration issue..you're not paying attention...there's plenty of "illegals" right next door to you and me and they didn't get raided in the middle of the night AND WHO THE THE HELL ARE WE ANYWAY BUT IMMIGRANTS??? IM A BLACK WOMEN AND FROM MY HISTORY BOOKS WE STOLE THIS COUNTRY IN THE FIRST PLACE..I'm sorry but this is CRAP...Kutmah...you're my Homie...FREE KUTMAH!!!