[Vision2020] Obama aunt from Kenya living in US illegally

[No Weatherman]

AP: Obama aunt from Kenya living in US illegally
Nov 1 12:08 AM US/Eastern
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press Writers

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.

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.

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.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D945TEE01&show_article=1