[StBernard] Obama denies knowing aunt's illegal status

[Westley Annis]

Obama denies knowing aunt's illegal status 
Immigration judge denied Kenyan woman's request for asylum in 2004
The Associated Press
updated 11:27 a.m. CT, Sat., Nov. 1, 2008
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Saturday he
didn't know that one of his relatives was living in the United States
illegally and believes the appropriate laws should be followed. 

The Associated Press found that Obama's aunt had been instructed to leave
the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request
for asylum from her native Kenya. The woman, Zeituni Onyango, is living in
public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama's late father. 

"Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that
any and all appropriate laws be followed," according to a statement given to
the AP by Obama's campaign.

Onyango, 56, referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in Obama's memoir, was
instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge, 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 enforcement 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.

Obama first met Onyango when he traveled to Africa as an adult. Obama
campaign officials said he has seen her a few times since that meeting,
beginning with a return trip to Kenya with his wife, Michelle, four years
after the first trip. Onyango visited the family in Chicago on a tourist
visa at Obama's invitation about nine years ago, the campaign said, stopping
to visit friends on the East coast before returning to Kenya. 

She attended Obama's swearing-in to the U.S. Senate in 2004, but campaign
officials said Obama provided no assistance in getting her a tourist visa
and doesn't know the details of her stay. The campaign said he last heard
from her about two years ago when she called saying she was in Boston, but
he did not see her there. 

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.


According to Federal Election Commission documents filed by the Obama
campaign, Onyango contributed $260 to Obama over a period of time. Under
federal election law, only U.S. citizens or green-card holders are legally
permitted to give money to campaigns. Onyango, who listed her employer as
the Boston Housing Authority, gave in small increments to the Obama
campaign. Her latest contribution was $5 on Sept. 19.

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.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Kelly Nantel,
said the government does not comment on an individual's citizenship status
or immigration case.

Directive may reflect political sensitivity
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.

Kenya is in eastern Africa between Somalia and Tanzania. The country has
been fractured in violence in recent years, including a period of two months
of bloodshed after December 2007 that killed 1,500 people.

The disclosure about Onyango came just one day after Obama's presidential
campaign confirmed to the Times of London that Onyango, who has lived
quietly in public housing in South Boston for five years, was Obama's half
aunt on his father's side.

It was not immediately clear how Onyango might have qualified for public
housing with a standing deportation order.


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27481680/