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.
#31 – O’Furniture
OK, kick her out. You’re going to burn in Hell for your anti-Christian behavior, but that’s of no concern to me.
Just like whatever Obama’s long-lost half aunt has been doing for the past 4 years is of no concern to anyone at all regarding his victory next Tuesday.
You have to wonder, though. Who exactly released this confidential information, what were there motives, and whom were they working for? Is the $500/yr that she was getting in rent subsidies really THAT important to the economy, when Dumbya is pissing away $700,000,000,000.00 a pop?
#31. I anticipate a huge reduction in my taxes with Aunt Olive’s departure.
I say send her home on rule of law grounds – she tried to stay, got turned down apparently after due process, so she gotta go. But her going is not going to free up one public housing unit, since she is living with someone else who, after all, still needs a roof. so, even though she is occupying some square footage, it is no money out of the taxpayer pocket.
#32 Musturd, “You’re going to burn in Hell for your anti-Christian behavior, but that’s of no concern to me.”
No, I spoke with the Archangel Metatron and the fix is in for me. 😉
What I’m concerned about are the campaign contributions she made to Obama’s campaign.
He should refund the money and there should be an investigation launched to figure out if there are any more anomalies such as this.
Yet another thing Obama just doesn’t know about. Yeah right. The campaign knew about her campaign contributaion they just didn’t want you to know. Why? Because it’s an illegal contribution and people are going to wonder where someone living in public housing comes up with $260.
If the media can stick a probe up Joe’s ass they can stick it up Auntee Obamas. The question is how did she get public housing? Did she have a little help or did she forge some paperwork? Is she going to get the boot or do we look the other way cause she is who she is?
#36 – Girl Friend
>>Is she going to get the boot or do we look
>>the other way cause she is who she is?
“get the boot” from what? From being his aunt that he hasn’t spoken to in decades?
Joe the “plumber” is an everyday reference at McBush’s mutant rallies, with McBush invoking his name and praising him (even though 1. he’s a phony 2. he’s not a plumber, 3. he’ll never make enough money in his pathetic life to pay more under Obama’s tax plan, and 4. He doesn’t even show up, while McBush is plaintively calling his name).
THAT is someone we should be concerned about, and about the mental fitness of a wannabe POTUS that uses Joe the “plumber” as the primary figurehead in his campaign.
Christ, focus on the big picture, Girl Friend! What next? Obama has an unpaid parking ticket from 1991?
“Hey! At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c&nt”.
Yep. That’s the guy we want answering the 3am phone calls.
#37 “How about McBush running for cover after he dropped two 1000-pound bombs on his own ship from his A-4, allowing 134 of “his” men to die, and 164 to be seriously injured?”
You’re such an idiot.
#39 – O’Pinocchio
>>You’re such an idiot.
Not a very compelling rebuttal, even by the low standards I’ve established for you, O’Pinocchio.
Do you wish to dispute the fact that “Johnny Mac” lost two 1000-pound bombs on the Forrestal, allowing the incineration of 134 of “his” men, and 164 to be seriously injured?
Or do you dispute the fact of him thinking with the Little Head (apparently, the only one he has) and dumping his wife for the trophy beer baroness?
What is it? Huh?
Gotta love how the Bush administration will leak the details of an illegal immigration investigation just to dirty Senator Obama’s name, yet can’t be bothered to prosecute real crimes like Contempt of Congress, incursions onto US soil by armed Drug Cartel members, or campaign finance Law infractions by the McCain campaign.
#40 “Do you wish to dispute the fact that”
Watch the video and read the results of the inquiry.
God, what an idiot.
Mr. Mustard is off his meds – again!!
#43 LOL
As I thought. Clueless.
#45 – O’Furniture
Please! Put on your jammies, have a glass of warm milk, brush your teeth, and go to bet.
Your “responses” are becoming almost as irrelevant as McBush.
#44 – Brenda Lee
Yeah, I’m on a roll, aren’t I? It’s like shooting fish in a barrel though, or shooting wolves from a helicopter.
The right wing has truly fallen on their faces in a puddle of spittle.
Get back to me on Wednesday, when America is on the road to recovery.
#16 Jägermeister
Then there is this epic fail.
The point is that a British newspaper had to uncover this. Our newspapers and tv has not done their job. Think about it – has there ever been any information about Obama’s past that has surfaced that has been positive? This should have come out a lot earlier if they were. Obama wrote about her in his book and said that she was family and he had responsibility for her and his family. He took no responsibility for her or his own brother who makes $1/month. If he is his brother’s keeper, I don’t want to count on him for anything.
I run a multinational company and with 75% of our employees in the US. If Obama is elected, we will not be able to compete operating in the US. We have already made plans to have all of our new growth to be produced outside the US and reduce our Us employment to 55%. If we don’t do this, all of our US employees would lose their jobs because we would cease to exist.
Obama is going to kill our economy everyone will be equal (equally poor)
The point is that a British newspaper had to uncover this. Our newspapers and tv has not done their job. Think about it – has there ever been any information about Obama’s past that has surfaced that has been positive? This should have come out a lot earlier if they were. Obama wrote about her in his book and said that she was family and he had responsibility for her and his family. He took no responsibility for her or his own brother who makes $1/month. If he is his brother’s keeper, I don’t want to count on him for anything.
I run a multinational company and with 75% of our employees in the US. If Obama is elected, we will not be able to compete operating in the US. We have already made plans to have all of our new growth to be produced outside the US and reduce our Us employment to 55%. If we don’t do this, all of our US employees would lose their jobs because we would cease to exist.
Obama is going to kill our economy everyone will be equal (equally poor). The only change we will have is change (not dollars) in our pockets.
#44, brenda,
Mr. Mustard is off his meds – again!!
That may be true, BUT, he is still right.
And Hey !!! While we got you here, where is that link to the $60 million start-up you created? Remember? The one that makes you so much smarter than everyone else? And probably more handsome too.
(Just what we all wish for, some handsome dude named Brenda)
#50 – pedro
Aren’t you going back to Venezuela to overthrow Chavez?
#50 – ‘dro
Did you overdose on meth or something? Christ on a crutch!! You are whacked out, dude.
#44 – Brenda Lee
Is it that time of month again?
#49 – Meister
>>(Just what we all wish for, some handsome
>>dude named Brenda)
I should introduce you to my sister Polythene Pam. She’s so good looking but she looks like a man (Well you should see her in drag dressed in her polythene bag; Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt; She’s killer-diller when she’s Jacked to the Hilt; She’s the kind of a girl that makes the “News of the World”; Yes you could say she was attractively built)!
You just gotta love those Lennon/ McCartney songs from the old days.
# 38 mr tard
She should get booted from the U.S., she is an illegal alien after all.
#37, Liberty Loser
If either of these two candidates win, that will be all of our names.
>>What I’m concerned about are the campaign
>>contributions she made to Obama’s campaign.
Whoa! Holy shit! Get the FBI cracking on this one!!!!
She contributed about $270 over several years!!
Poison,
Actually, it was over $500. And it doesn’t matter if it was a single dollar. Candidates can only accept donations from US citizens or legal green card holders. It is the law and he is breaking it.
However, since you think that $270 is OK, what is not OK? Where is the line drawn? How many more donations has he accepted and spent without verifying the legitimacy of the donor? If we accept $270 today, what are we going to accept tomorrow? Or the day after?
And if you can’t decide on that number, how many illegal donations of $270 is acceptable? 1,5, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000? How many?
As much BS as you spew about how badly Bushco has broken the law, I would really like to know where the line is.
Why don’t we talk about McCain’s little car crash in 1964. You know the one that killed that person. Was he drunk? Why wont the Navy give us the details? Was it because of his father and a cover up? What is there to hide? Was he drunk when those planes crashed too? I think McCain should explain to the American people what happened and request that the Navy IMMEDIATELY release the documents.
#56 – Girl Friend
>># 38 mr tard – She should get booted from
>>the U.S., she is an illegal alien after all.
OK, so boot her.
Just don’t try any bullshit like trying to taint Obama with the actions of his long-lost half-aunt.
This is so pathetic, it’s beginning to be embarrasing to everyone, friend and foe of McBush alike.
Kind of like putting Palin up for the V-POTUShood, or the chalk-on-the-blackboard unending appleas to Joe the “plumber”.
Sheesh.
Stop it already. If only for your own dignity.
#58 – Liberty Loser
>>Actually, it was over $500.
I don’t think so.
According to the Times Online “Ms Onyango contributed $260 to her nephew’s campaign, apparently in numerous small amounts. The Boston Globe reported that she made three donations of just $5 and two more of $25..
Woo. High crime!! Obama’s campaign raised more than $150,000,000.00 in September alone. So many people want to give him money, you think they investigate the origin of every five-dollar check that comes in the door?
Christ.
If what she did was illegal, he should give back the $260 and be done with it.
That the McBushBois are trying to make this into a major “scandal” is just further evidence of how desparate and sad their plight has become.
As to breaking of laws, Dumbya’s felonies have resulted in the death of 4000+ Americans, somewhere in the vicinity of 1,000,000 deaths overall, the shredding of the Constitution, the theft of Americans’ civil liberties, and much much more.
To compare that with Obama’s little old Auntie giving his campaign (which has raise about $265,000,000.00) a donation of TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY DOLLARS is so laughable, I can’t believe you’re even raising it.
What a pathetic, sad, desperate dying breath for the McBush supporters.
It’s like comparing kicking a dog to the Holocaust. Neither one is right, but get a grip, Loser. They’re not the same ballpark, not the same league, not even the same fucking sport.
Sheesh.
I’m becoming embarrassed at your idiocy.
#59 – J
>>I think McCain should explain to the
>>American people what happened and request
>>that the Navy IMMEDIATELY release the
>>documents.
Yeah, you’d think with all the yammering the wingnuts have done about Kerry “not releasing” his military records (where there was nothing to hide), they’d be all over McBush to make public whether or not he’s guilty of vehicular manslaughter while drunk.
Of course, they weren’t too interested in having Dumbya release HIS military records either – the ones that documented what he was doing AWOL when he was supposed to be flying potted plants around Dixie (on his Poppy-coordinated non-combat tour of “duty”) during the Vietnam War.
Well, one thing nobody ever accused the Repugs of was not being hypocrites.
Liberty Loser
What do you think about this, from HuffPo?
“For the past two months, a major American magazine and an allied news service have been engaged in a legal battle with the United States Navy over records that they believe show that John McCain once was involved in an automobile accident that injured or, perhaps, killed another individual.
Vanity Fair magazine and the National Security News Service claim to have knowledge “developed from first-hand sources” of a car crash that involved then-Lt. McCain at the main gate of a Virginia naval base in 1964, according to legal filings. The incident has been largely, if not entirely, kept from the public. And in documents suing the Navy to release pertinent information, lawyers for the NS News Service allege that a cover-up may be at play.
“Plaintiffs have also obtained documents showing that law enforcement officers were ordered back to the accident scene to retrieve personal physical effects. The Navy has never publicly acknowledged this information,” one document reads. “This request involves federal government activity, as it addresses what may be an attempt by the Navy to protect by concealment the involvement of a former Navy officer, sitting Senator and Presidential candidate in a serious incident involving the injury or death of another human being.”
The first request for information concerning duty assignment logs to Portsmouth Naval Hospital — where McCain was allegedly brought after the accident — came in the form of a Freedom of Information Act request on August 28, 2008. The Navy acknowledged receipt of the request and advised that it had located the relevant information a few weeks later, only to deny the FOIA on grounds that it didn’t prove an “imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual” or satisfy the criteria of “a breaking news story of general public interest.”
“The patient admission record logs that you seek are exempt from release,” wrote G.E. Lattin, Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General, “as information in personnel and medical files, as well as similar personal information in other files, that if disclosed to a requestor, other than the actual person in which the information is pertaining to or next of kin, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
NS News Service and Vanity Fair appealed the decision and asked for expedited treatment of the case, as the end of the presidential election loomed. But the Navy denied that request as well.
“It appears to be a deliberate refusal to provide clearly releasable information concerning assignments to Portsmouth Naval Hospital,” wrote legal representatives for the two news organizations. “Allowing the Navy to extend its time to respond beyond a date when the documentary facts of this matter would be available for public consideration prior to the national election on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 would violate the spirit, as well as the provisions of the FOIA.”
Staff for National Security News Service and the company’s lawyer both refused to discuss the proceedings. And there are only parcels of information concerning the story that can be gleaned from the court documents.
At a minimum it seems clear that Vanity Fair and NS News Service have launched an investigation “disclosing first-hand witnesses’ recollection of an automobile accident in which then Lt. John S. McCain III was involved. Those witnesses specifically recall McCain’s assignment to that [hospital] facility with the other person involved in the accident.” This episode in McCain’s life has, it seems, not been made public, and the plaintiffs suggest that the Navy may be attempting to actively restrict information about the incident.
“The subject matter of the documents is a matter of current exigency to the American public,” reads a document filed by legal representatives for the news service, “because the requester is preparing a current news report addressing whether the Navy continues to conceal the involvement of a Navy officer in a serious automobile accident in July 1964.”
Once again, the bloggers on Dvorak prove themselves to be the biggest idiots on the Internet.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
LOL!!!
# 48 Thermo said, in part:
“Think about it – has there ever been any information about Obama’s past that has surfaced that has been positive?”
You betcha! He managed to graduate from Columbia University and Harvard Law School and pass the bar exam. That’s more than I have done; more than most folks have done. He managed to get elected to the U.S. Senate — not a feat accomplished by many. I think those things are pretty positive.
Thermo again:
“Our newspapers and tv has not done their job.”
Hasn’t they?
And:
“I run a multinational company and with 75% of our employees in the US.”
I used to wonder why American companies did so poorly in competition with the rest of the world…