Thread: Facing deportation: Obama's aunt might (or might not) return

Facing deportation: Obama's aunt might (or might not) return to Kenya

By Ted Bridis
Associated Press Writer
Updated: 06/04/2009 06:25:49 AM MDT

WASHINGTON » President Barack Obama's aunt, who is fighting to remain in the U.S., says she might or might not be heading to Kenya before her next deportation hearing. Such a trip could affect her immigration case.

Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUH'-nee awn-YAHN'-goh) has been living illegally in the U.S. for years. She told the Boston Globe on Wednesday that she would return to Kenya as soon as that evening, but then said she wasn't going. Even if she did leave, she said she planned to be in Boston for her immigration hearing on Feb. 4.

"I'll be there, God willing," Onyango, 57, told the Globe for a story posted on its Web site. "I don't know, I'm not a soothsayer. I leave everything to God."

If a person has an application or a petition for a benefit such as asylum, and that person leaves the country without notifying the federal government, the person is effectively abandoning the petition, a homeland security official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about a specific case.

Neither Onyango nor her immigration lawyer, Margaret Wong, could be reached by the AP. The White House declined to comment immediately.

Mike Rogers, a spokesman for Wong, said Onyango had not left the country and had no plans to leave anytime soon.

Rogers said Onyango left Boston because of overwhelming media attention.

"I think she just needed a reprieve," he said. He would not reveal where she now lived other than to say she remained in the U.S.

Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, 87, told reporters in Kenya that Onyango would be returning there.

"How would she know?" Onyango told the Globe. "I don't want anybody to know whether I'm going to hell or heaven."

Sarah Obama made the statement during a visit by journalists from the International Reporting Project, said the group's director John Schidlovsky, who was traveling with the reporters. The group is associated with the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University and pays for reporters to travel internationally on prize-winning stories.

"What we heard was, Sarah Obama had spoken with her and that was her understanding," Schidlovsky said in a telephone interview from Kenya with the AP. He said Sarah Obama offered no details.

In April, a U.S. immigration judge in Boston set Onyango's case to be heard Feb. 4, giving her until at least next year to make her bid for asylum from her native Kenya. Onyango, 56, first applied for asylum in 2002, but her request was rejected and she was ordered deported in 2004. She did not leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston.

Obama has said he did not know his aunt was living here illegally and believes laws covering the situation should be followed.

Onyango's status as an illegal alien was revealed just days before Obama was elected in November. After intense media coverage, Onyango left Boston and went to Cleveland to live with a relative.

In December, a judge agreed to suspend her deportation order and reopen her asylum case.

Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's late father, first moved to the United States in 2000.

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan in Washington and Meghan Barr in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report

http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_12517879

Related
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-158273-aunt.html

There are a lot of economic opportunities which have opened up for the Kenyan Obamas but they can not take advantage of them unless they are living in Kenya.

Rogers said Onyango left Boston because of overwhelming media attention.



Oh puh-leeeeze

OVERWHELMING media attention

Why don't these people get over themselves? Overwhelming media attention my ass. In fact, she reminds me of people like Madonna, Britnney Spears and other has-beens........as soon as no one is paying attention they do whatever they can to get themselves into the media no matter how miniscule the mention.

You've had your 15 minutes Auntie........move on already

"I think she just needed a reprieve," he said. He would not reveal where she now lived other than to say she remained in the U.S.


Would not surprise me in the least if her ass isn't living large at the White House right along with obama's MIL.

Maybe Oprah can help her write her book between her running in and out of the place.

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