Case of President Obama's illegal immigrant uncle postponed

Defense wants blood alcohol test tossed

Updated: Thursday, 01 Mar 2012, 9:56 AM EST
Published : Thursday, 01 Mar 2012, 7:52 AM EST

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - President Barack Obama's uncle was scheduled to appear in a Massachusetts courtroom Thursday, but the case has been postponed.

Lawyers for Onyango Obama were expected to ask a judge to toss out the results of a blood alcohol test and statements he made to police.

The president's uncle – who is in the country illegally - was arrested last August after a Framingham police officer said he made a rolling stop and nearly caused his cruiser to crash into Obama's SUV.

Police said Onyango Obama registered a point .14 on a blood alcohol test. He is due back in court on April 2.

Case of President Obama's illegal immigrant uncle postponed

Until after the elections?

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Drunken driving charge against Obama’s uncle is continued

boston.com
March 28, 2012|By Lisa Kocian and Maria Sacchetti

FRAMINGHAM -- President Obama’s uncle, Onyango Obama, admitted to sufficient facts to charges of drunken driving Tuesday in Framingham District Court, renewing questions over whether he will now battle deportation to his native Kenya.

A judge continued Obama’s drunken driving case without a finding for one year, meaning it will then be dismissed if his record stays clean. The 67-year-old liquor store manager, the half brother of the president’s late father, did not plead guilty, but conceded that prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction.

Obama, stone-faced and dressed in a brown suit, was silent in court except when asked questions by Judge Douglas Stoddart. The prosecutor had asked for a guilty finding, but defense lawyer P. Scott Bratton told the judge that Obama had no criminal convictions, was unlikely to reoffend, and had arrived in the United States from Kenya in 1963 to attend high school.

He urged the judge to treat Obama like other first offenders facing a misdemeanor drunken driving charge.

“This has been a very difficult time for him,’’ Bratton said of his client.

The judge sentenced Obama’s to one year probation, suspended his driver’s license for 45 days and ordered him to enroll in alcohol education programs and pay $350 in court fees. Obama was found not responsible for failing to yield, and a negligent motor vehicle operation charge was dismissed.

After the brief hearing, Obama left the courthouse and said only “no comment.”

“He feels good to have it behind him,’’ Bratton told reporters. “It was upsetting to him that he received so much attention.’’

Obama’s drunk-driving arrest last August attracted international attention because it revealed that he had been living in the United States illegally since he was ordered deported in 1992 — the second presidential relative found to be living in the United States illegally.

Tuesday, seven months after his arrest, Onyango Obama’s immigration status remained unclear.

His defense lawyer said Obama has an immigration hearing next month, but the federal immigration court had no record of a hearing and a court spokeswoman refused to comment on the case.

His immigration lawyers at the time of his arrest did not respond to requests Tuesday for comment.

Federal immigration officials, who placed a detainer on Obama after his arrest last year and jailed him for more than two weeks, did not answer questions Tuesday on whether they are still pursuing his deportation. Immigrants with outstanding deportation orders and pending criminal charges are often locked up until they are deported, immigration lawyers said.

Bratton told reporters that Obama now has a temporary work permit, will apply for a hardship driver’s license from the Registry of Motor Vehicles so he can continue to work at the liquor store, and is still appealing the 1992 deportation order.

Bratton predicted that the misdemeanor would have “little, if any, impact on his immigration status.”

But immigration lawyers were not so sure. They said the drunk driving case, while minor by criminal standards, could hurt Obama in federal immigration court.

Immigration judges frown even on minor crimes, especially involving drunk driving, and they can reopen cases at their discretion. Also, Obama would have to prove to a judge that his circumstances have changed enough to warrant reexamining his case 20 years after he was ordered deported, and never left.

“Many of the judges view (drunk driving cases) as a very negative factor,” said Jeremiah Friedman, a Boston immigration lawyer.

An immigration judge could also consider factors such as Obama’s age, potential health issues and family ties.

Obama, who lives in Framingham, is not married and has no children.

“To reopen at this point, 20 years later, it would have to be some sort of extraordinary circumstances,” said Matthew Maiona, a Boston immigration lawyer and past president of the local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Lawyers said Obama could also apply for asylum or bypass the courts altogether and ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which detains and deports immigrants, to stay his deportation, placing him in a sort of limbo.

Obama’s sister, Zeituni Onyango, won asylum in 2010, reversing prior deportation orders by saying she suffered health issues and undue exposure as a relative of the president. She became eligible to apply for a green card and eventually could apply for US citizenship.

Zeituni Onyango’s asylum case dragged through the immigration courts for nearly two years.

By comparison, Onyango Obama’s criminal case was resolved in a brief hearing Tuesday.

Obama was arrested Aug. 24 by police officer Val Krishtal, who said that Obama’s white SUV cut in front of the officer’s unmarked cruiser on Waverly Street, nearly causing a collision.

Krishtal had Obama take a chemical breath test, saying his eyes were bloodshot and his speech slurred, and the test showed his blood-alcohol level to be 0.14 percent, above the legal limit court records show.

After the hearing, Bratton said Obama and his supporters had not reached out to the White House for help.

“Absolutely not,’’ Bratton said.

Court records show that Obama said “I think I will call the White House” at the time of his arrest.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tougher controls on illegal immigration, said Obama should be deported.

“Anybody who has made a mockery of immigration laws for 20 years ought to be removed from the country once and for all,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if his nephew happens to be the president of United States.”John Ellement of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

source: Drunken driving charge against Obama’s uncle is continued - Page 2 - Boston.com