Barack Obama's impoverished, Boston-living aunt is an illegal alien (ICE halts all depotations!?)

[UPDATE: Obama throws her under the bus!]

From this:

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.

While reading this, I thought that two things would happen: either she'd be shuttled quickly out of the country (perhaps aboard Obama's 757), or there'd be an emergency private relief bill quickly passed to make here legal. It looks like the Bush administration has, for one reason or other, already taken steps in that direction:

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.

UPDATE: She also donated to his campaign. That was illegal, but the one who should take all the blame for the situation is Obama himself. She's a sympathetic figure; he is not.

Did he know she was here illegally? What contacts has he had with her? If he knew she was staying in the U.S. on and off he must have had some inkling of knowledge of her immigration status. Did he try to hide her away? The article linked from the last link has her telling a reporter this:

"We'll talk after the election... Come talk to me after the fifth."

And, from this she said:

"I can't talk about it, I just pray for him, that's all... After the 4th, I can talk to anyone."

Did someone from the campaign tell her to keep quiet?

Why was BHO letting her illegally redistribute her wealth to him, when he could have been helping her by getting her an immigration lawyer? If BHO had gotten her a lawyer, could they have appealed? Why then didn't BHO help her out? When is he going to introduce an emergency private relief bill to give her a green card?

Those are all good questions he should be asked, but I'm absolutely positive that no one is going to ask them, least of all so-called citizen journalists.

[UPDATE: Obama throws her under the bus!]

Politics · Fri, 10/31/2008 - 19:14 · · Importance: 1