Sad—and also disturbing—news about DJ Kutmah, the popular record producer, visual artist and record spinner for the Dublab collective. Reports from the LA Weekly and elsewhere indicate that Kutmah, a.k.a. Justin McNulty, a British national born of a Scottish father and Egyptian mother, had been taken into custody by U.S. immigration officials last week and is being detained in a facility in New Mexico.

Kutmah was to be a part of Flying Lotus’ live band during a performance this week at the Echoplex, but obviously will not be able to attend the event. Over the weekend, news of his troubles began to make the rounds via Twitter.  Fellow DJs J. Rocc, Flying Lotus and the Gaslamp Killer tweeted their support, urging friends and fans of Kutmah to sign an online petition on McNulty’s behalf and to add the above graphic to their Facebook pages.

Xeni also posted at Boing Boing about this and there are some interesting comments there.

A limited edition of his DJ set from the Erykah Badu show mentioned in Xeni’s post will be for sale as a fundraiser within a couple of weeks.