WASHINGTON (AP) – Barack Obama’s aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned. Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango’s case.
Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcment official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release. Onyango’s refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, non-criminal violation of U.S. immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Estimates vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the United States.
The AP could not reach Onyango immediately for comment. No one answered the telephone number listed in her name late Friday. It was unclear why her request for asylum was rejected in 2004. Onyango is not a relative whom Obama has discussed in campaign appearances and, unlike Obama’s father and grandmother, is not someone who has been part of the public discussion about his personal life.
Onyango’s case—coming to light just days before the presidential election—led to an unusual nationwide directive within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement requiring any deportations prior to Tuesday’s election to be approved at least at the level of ICE regional directors, the U.S. law enforcement official told the AP. The unusual directive suggests that the Bush administration is sensitive to the political implications of Onyango’s case coming to light so close to the election.
It was not immediately clear how Onyango might have qualified for public housing with a standing deportation order.
Someone has been doing some digging, it has a certain smell to it.
#49 – Thermo
>>Obama wrote about her in his book and said
>>that she was family and he had
>>responsibility for her and his family.
Care to cite the portion of the book where he say he “has responsibility” (of the financial sort) for each and every member of his extended family?
Usually when someone says they “have responsibility” for their family, they mean their wife/ husband, their children, and maybe their parents.
So Obama came from modest beginnings, and he has some half-relatives who aren’t financially well off. Is he supposed to support them all? What, you think he’s Paris Hilton or something? Until he started making money from his books and his wife got a good job, he didn’t have that much money himself. And his brother is living incognito.
How many half-relatives do you support?
Personally, I think Obama is an outstanding example of how anyone “can grow up to be president”, and is an inspiration to millions.
Plus, he’s our next POTUS.
Thank God almighty!
Poison,
I’m not talking about anybody else except for Obama right now. Your attempts to keep shifting the subject will not work until you give me an answer.
Where is the line drawn? Where is it ok to break the law and where is it not?
You give me an answer on that and I’ll happily discuss McPalin with you.
#66 – Liberty Loser
>>Where is the line drawn? Where is it ok to
>>break the law and where is it not?
I never said it was OK to break the law. If the $260 Obama’s half-aunt gave him turns out to be against the regulations, he must give it back. If his half-aunt’s application for asylum is not approved, then she should go back where she came from.
If you really are asserting that McBush’s responsibility for the deaths of 134 of “his men, his philandering, his mysterious and secret fatal car crash, etc. are in the same ballpark as Obama’s campaign cashing a check for the amount that they take in about every 4 seconds, then you’re even dumber and more of a True Believer than I though.
Sheesh.
Give it up, son. Obama is squeaky clean by any standards, and when put up against a ne’er-do-well like McBush, he looks like a saint.
As to those citing official investigative reports about McCain’s “accidents” when he was a pilot – we really needn’t remind you that both his father and his grandfather were Admirals in the Navy at the time this happened, do we? Not saying they are or aren’t true – just saying, take any “official” reports written on McCain’s service with a heavy grain of salt.
#68, I never said it was OK to break the law. […] If the $260 Obama’s half-aunt gave him turns out to be against the regulations
Poison,
Well, I hate to break it to you but he broke the law — he didn’t “violate” a regulation. He accepted money in clear violation of campaign finance laws. Just because he is going to give it back or did give it back does not excuse him.
If you steal a TV worth $100 and get caught, even if you give it back, you are still going to jail because you broke the law.
Why isn’t Obama going to jail, Poison? Is he taking advantage of his status?
We need to know where the line is drawn. This is important because he needs to be investigated to find out how many more illegal contributions he has accepted and not refunded.
He’s accepted over $30,000 in donations from Palestinians. He says he gave the money back but there is no record of it. How convenient is that?
Rebecca Kurth contributed $3,137.38 to the Obama Campaign in 112 donations, including 34 separate donations recorded in one day,
A donor named Hbkjb, jkbkj
City: Jkbjnj Works for: Kuman Bank (doesn’t exist)
Occupation: Balanon Jalalan Amount: $1,077.23
or the donor Doodad, The # of transactions = 1,044
The $ contributed = $10,780.00
This Doodad character works for FDGFDGF and occupation is DFGFDG
Over half of the $426.9 million Barack Obama raised by 10/1/200 came from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won’t disclose. How can we trust a man with known illegal campaign contributions when he won’t show us the proof everything is legit?
The FEC has compiled a separate database of potentially questionable overseas donations that contains more than 11,500 contributions totaling $33.8 million. More than 520 listed their “state” as “IR,” often an abbreviation for Iran. Another 63 listed it as “UK,” the United Kingdom.
More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or military personnel, who gave an APO address overseas. Their total contributions came to just $201,680.
But others came from places as far afield as Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Beijing, Fallujah, Florence, Italy, and a wide selection of towns and cities in France.
Obama is also soliciting donations from nearly every country in the world.
I can list 100 more anomalies than this but I think you get the picture. Something is fishy in the Obama camp and I want to know what it is. Why is this guy getting so much international support? Is he the Manchurian Candidate?
Where is the line drawn, Poison?
# 67 pedro
“That’s typical wing-nut tactic to avoid hearing reality”
The reality, you dipshit, is that NO ONE knows whether she is legal or not. All that is known is that she was denied in 2004. There is no information on whether she appealed or not and what the outcome of that was. For all you or anyone else knows she could be here legally.
Besides isn’t it fair game to bring up , at last minute, things that have been ignored? I think it is way more important than whether or not Obama’s HALF AUNT is a legal citizen. It goes directly to John McCain’s behavior, credibility, and honor.
I think we’re more likely to have amnesty with McCain as President than Obama. Obama supports amnesty even more than McCain, but when he’s President, I would expect almost a unified opposition from the Republicans, while McCain would split his party and maybe get a majority.
Obama is merely practicing what he preaches:
Government benefits for illegal aliens.
Don’t fret. Some wealthy Republican household will put her to work while her fellow undocumented can make massive profits for the family by picking the crops or building the homes.
Ha!
Republicans then: “Poor, sweet Auntie! How dare Obama be so cruel to a family member?”
Republicans now: “Death to Auntie! How dare Obama not jail her!”
Keep twisting, boys, keep twisting…
# 78 Wretched Gnu
I am glad I am not the only one that noticed that.
#71, Loser,
Well, I hate to break it to you but he broke the law — he didn’t “violate” a regulation. He accepted money in clear violation of campaign finance laws. Just because he is going to give it back or did give it back does not excuse him.
Wrong. In order to break the law it requires some degree of knowing. He did not accept money in clear violation of the law. He accepted a donation to his election campaign. This happens to almost every person running for high office, Republican and Democrat alike.
The Federal Election Commission is usually satisfied that the campaign either return the money or donate it to a charity. They understand that it is impossible to vet every donation and it won’t be until later the identity is determined.
Obama is also soliciting donations from nearly every country in the world.
He is? That would be illegal, especially when he doesn’t need to. With the internet and mass communication though, people from all over the world want Obama to win. Most don’t realize it is illegal for them to do so. That is not Obama’s fault.
#75, Lyin’ Mike,
Obama is merely practicing what he preaches:
Government benefits for illegal aliens.
Link please.
Oopps, I forgot. You only make up the lies, they don’t exist.
DON’T FORGET: Congress can always step in an author a private bill on Aunti Zeituni’s behalf.
The Center for Immigration Studies addressed this in full:
http://cis.org/feere/AuntiZeituniAprilFools
[Please drop the WWW from URLs as WordPress doesn’t display it properly… plus it’s unnecessary. – ed.]