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.
So let me get this straight.
Millionaire Obama doesn’t use his wealth to help his poor illegal alien Aunt get out of public housing, but if I complain about Obama wanting to raise my taxes to ‘spread the wealth around’ I’m the selfish one?
Exactly!
And lucky for Aunti, anyone who thinks she should face the music and get the boot is considered a “hater” and a “xenophobe” and a RACIST.
I want everybody on the same page with this:
Sunday, 11/2 5:30 AM ET: Release the story about how Biden hired that truck driver to wipe out his family in ’72 for the insurance money.
Sunday, 11/2 3:00 PM ET: Release the ‘evidence’ that Barak’s smoking habit has produced a ‘shadow’ on his latest chest X-ray.
Monday, 11/3 2:00 AM ET: Send the compromising images of that one that looks so much like Michelle Obama in the back seat of the Hummer giving a hummer to what looks like John Stewart, the little jerk.
Tuesday, 11/4 10 PM ET: Victory with honor.
Not necessarily in defense of Obama, but are you aware of the plight EVERY single person your extended family? Hell, I’ve got aunts, uncles and first cousins I have no contact with and don’t care to! Just saying.
What can possibly go wrong with this story?
If McCain and Palin are smart (yes, have your way with that one) then they will distance themselves from this story for obvious reasons.
#1, When was the last time you intervened to help out your aunt when she didn’t contact you for help on anything?
Just asking.
This is McBush’s attempt at an “October surprise”.
Too little, too late. This one’s a non-starter.
And not to be too much of a conspiracy theorist, but no one outside of “La Migra” would know what her residence status was or access to that information. So how did this “story” break? Could George “The Constitution is Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper” W. Bush’s administration have been involved??
I’m just saying.
I can honestly say I have no idea what my out of state aunts and uncles do in their lives. I also have very little knowledge of what my wife’s aunts and uncles do within the same stae I live in.
This is like the Seinfeld tv show, a story about nothing.
#5 Never, but then again I’m not a millionaire running for president. If I was I would at least buy her a burger or something.
#3 – Mr. Twit
>>Hell, I’ve got aunts, uncles and first
>>cousins I have no contact with and don’t
>>care to!
No kidding! That’s why this “story” is such a joke in the first place. And it’s not even his full aunt, it’s his HALF aunt (whatever that is) on his father’s (the guy who walked out when Obama was 2) side.
When we’ve got a creepy guy who does creepy stuff actually running for president, it seems a little sad and pathetic to try and paint Obama with some sort of “misbehavior” in this incident.
And I still wonder who was responsible for the unauthorized leak of this information in the first place.
You’ve got to wonder.
I call bullshit!!
Any story released on the weekend before the election should be considered suspect. Especially ones containing phrases like “spoke on condition of anonymity” in them. This is an unsourced hit piece and nothing more.
I would agree with ArianeB except for the fact that this is the AP releasing the story and they have been nothing but Obama kool-aid drinkers all along. Either they finally decided to start being unbiased and release real news, or they are getting nervous because everyone is seeing them for the liberal biased scumbags they are. Just a thought.
#8 – jobs
>>If I was I would at least buy her a burger
>>or something.
Maybe if he’d known about her, he’d have bought her a Quad Stacker at Burger King.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know anything about her, her immigration status, or her financial situation.
Some McBush political hack released the information illegally, trying to give Obama a black eye.
It didn’t work. Just like Joe the “plumber” didn’t work. Nothing seems to be working for McBush. He’s probably bashing Cindy around the hotel room as we speak, screaming “at least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c&nt!! at least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c&nt!! at least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c&nt!!“
#11 – nocebo
>>everyone is seeing them for the liberal
>>biased scumbags they are.
Jesus F&cking Christ!! Now the Associated Press are “liberal biased scumbags”?? Whoa!!
Holy sh|t!!! I’ll bet you think Anal Cyst Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are “slightly left of center”.
#12, I think the point being missed here is this stuff should have been vetted by Obama’s camp long ago, I mean the guy is running for POTUS.
Heh, heh!
This story is nothing about Obama and everything about USA immigration policy and enforcement.
Nice sheep.
#12 – Mustard
Joe? Joe?
#14 – McCullough
Should Obama have to investigate every freaking relative and person he has ever met in order to run for President? People are voting for Obama and what he stands for… not aunt Zeituni and what she stands for.
#17. Are you seriously asking that question? In a perfect world…no. But this is politics…where have you been?
AP = American Pravda.
#18 – McCullough
So, McCain should have investigated what kind of nutter
Joe the Plumber is, before he decided to use him as a propagandist?
#20. Of course.
This story started with Murdoch’s Times of London. There are unnamed sources on this.
It will be “interesting” to see where this originated. So far, the McCain campaign is staying away from this. It will be “interesting” to see how the comment on it. Illegal immigration is a very touchy issue among Hispanic voters.
#14 – McC
>>I think the point being missed here is this
>>stuff should have been vetted by Obama’s
>>camp long ago, I mean the guy is running for
>>POTUS.
Why? Who really gives a f&ck about his long-lost aunt and her immigration status? Except for the Repugs’ stooges in La Migra who thought they could make some political hay over this nonsense.
And I’m not sure that operatives for Obama would be given access to allegedly “confidential” information from La Migra in the first place.
This is one of the most pathetic among an unending list of pathetic attempts to try and Swift-Boat Obama.
Not working, sadly for him. Nobody but the most die-hard “we will vote for McBush even if he’s a baby-eating pedophile” kooks even give this a second thought.
And what about Meister’s comment? Shouldn’t McBush’s lackeys have vetted “Joe the ‘plumber'” before he made him a cornerstone of his campaign? Sheesh. The guy is a poseur, a phony, a guy who’s going to make money if Obama is elected, and he looks like a neo-nazi. Oh well. They didn’t vet Palin either.
#16 – Meister
>>Joe? Joe?
I saw that on the news, and I was cringing with embarrassment for McBush.
Oh man. First the guy turns out to be a fake plumber, a “small businessman” only in his dreams, and an all-around bullsh|t artist, then he doesn’t even show up for the rally when he says he’s going to?
I wouldn’t want to be Cindy McCain when “Johnny Mac gets back” from that rally.
That is one dangerous, creepy guy.
Apparently the Bush Regime can’t even flush out one little old black lady and smoke her from her hole. If the GOP is so good at immigration she would have been sent back long ago.
The most enduring part of this story will be evident to those who have eaten breakfast in Turkey. Aunt Zeituni translates to Aunt Olive. Or maybe Aunt Olives, but let’s not get picky about unrelated languages.
The name of the place where I live translates to Seven Potatoes in Japanese, and the local college is something quite rude in Hungarian.
#27 – jbellies
Yep, that’s a pretty accurate description of what will be remembered from this “story”.
“Aunt Olive! Hey, is that Olive Oyl?? Gosh, I loved her in the Popeye cartoons!!”
Or was Olive Oyl really a mouthpiece for the PLO??
The flush lever has been pressed, and Johnny Mac and his crew are on the way down to the waste treatment center.
It’s not over til it’s over. And now it’s over.
Only thing I care about is an illegal alien sucking up public (my money) housing.
#29 – O’Furniture
>>Only thing I care about is an illegal alien
>>sucking up public (my money) housing.
If you made enough money to pay taxes, you’d have something to bitch about, I suppose.
Although it seems a little mean-spirited to be complaining about a little old lady who was refused (on unspecified grounds) political asylum living in a public housing project.
Of course, that’s just what the Repugs do, isn’t it?
#30 “Although it seems a little mean-spirited to be complaining about a little old lady who was refused (on unspecified grounds) political asylum living in a public housing project.”
Sorry, there 100 million more old ladies that’d love to live in the US on our dime. Doesn’t work that way. Kick her out.