Thread: Calls for Obama's Aunt to Testify About Being Granted Asylum

Rep. Steve King, Raising Questions of Favoritism, Calls for Obama's Aunt to Testify About Being Granted Asylum

Congressman Steve King, an Iowa Republican, today requested that President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, testify before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law in order to address "the public perception that favoritism played a role in the grant of asylum to Ms. Onyango."

In a letter to the chair of the subcommittee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, King writes that "[i]n order to better determine whether favoritism played a role - especially because Ms. Onyango had been earlier turned down for asylum and ordered deported in 2004 before her nephew became president - the Subcommittee needs to hear from Ms. Onyango herself."

"While I understand that asylum proceedings are generally confidential, Margaret Wong, Ms. Onyango's attorney, has clearly courted press attention regarding this matter," he continues. "In fact, I assume that the press learned that Ms. Onyango received asylum because of comments to the media made by Ms. Wong. Therefore, Ms. Onyango has made herself a public figure and should have no hesitation about appearing before the Subcommittee. Further, in order to facilitate Ms. Onyango's appearance before the Subcommittee, I request that you and Chairman Conyers authorize the Committee to reimburse her travel expenses."

Onyango was granted asylum last month; the half-sister of Mr. Obama's late father, she moved from Kenya to the United States in 2000.

Her 2002 application for asylum, which was tied to violence in Kenya, was rejected two years after she filed it. Despite that result, Onyango continued living in public housing in Boston.

When it was reported in 2008 that Onyango was possibly in the country illegally, Mr. Obama said he had no knowledge of her status. She testified on her own behalf in U.S. Immigration Court in Boston before being granted asylum this year.

The subcommittee hearing is set to take place Thursday morning.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... 03544.html

I have spoken with the lawyers on the case myself and am convinced they did it pro bono to garner publicity for paid service to get other lower profile clients for their immigration practice. A side effect of their plan to get national publicity for themselves is that Zeituni Onyango is now a public figure. She is now fair game for both papparazzi and the Congress.

masrgaret wong needs to also be brought before the committee and made to testify too

Originally Posted by Richard

I have spoken with the lawyers on the case myself and am convinced they did it pro bono to garner publicity for paid service to get other lower profile clients for their immigration practice. A side effect of their plan to get national publicity for themselves is that Zeituni Onyango is now a public figure. She is now fair game for both papparazzi and the Congress.

Of course they took the case pro bono. Unless that is obama paid for her lawyers. It was always about publicity for these lawyers, as they had a case they couldn't lose (You know as well as I aunt zuni was never in any danger of actually being deported) and a boat load of free publicity to further their legal pratice.

Win/win for everyone involved, except that is the American public who was cheated once again by this decision and a government that refuses to enforce orders of deportation and immigration law in general.

Is she still on public assistance?

June 15, 2010

Congressman wants Obama's aunt to testify

10:07 AM

President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, a native of Kenya, won a May 17 asylum hearing in Boston, giving her the right to stay in the USA. iCAPTIONBy Josh Reynolds, APRep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who is one of Capitol Hill's most outspoken critics of illegal immigration, wants President Obama's Kenyan-born aunt, Zeituni Onyango, to tell Congress about her recent grant of asylum.

King says he thinks there's something fishy about a Boston judge's decision last month to grant Onyango the legal right to remain in the USA.

"I am concerned about the public perception that favoritism played a role in the grant of asylum to Ms. Onyango," he writes in a letter to Rep. Zoe Lofgren,a California Democrat who chairs the House immigration subcommittee. King is urging Lofgren to invite Obama's aunt to testify at a previously scheduled hearing this Thursday.

Topic of the hearing, scheduled at the request of the panel's GOP members: the need for more immigration judges. King says Onyango could testify as part of the second panel -- and suggests that the subcommittee pay her way.

No dice, Onyango's lawyer tells the Washington Times. Techically, Onyango's case is still open: the government could appeal the judge's grant of asylum.

No comment from Lofgren, who just returned from a weekend in Mexico where she and a bipartisan congressional delegation were meeting with counterparts in that country.

The White House has denied any involvement in Onyango's case.

Update, 12:02 p.m. ET: Nick Shapiro of the president's press office just checked in and he reiterates: "The White House played no role in the judge's determination of the case."

Last month's decision reversed a 2004 order that Obama's aunt be deported. Reports that she was still living in the USA surfaced in 2008, days before the presidential election. At the time, Obama said he had no idea his aunt was in the country illegally.
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I want to know too Steve King.

Dixie

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http://www.alipac.us/article5359.html

She was probably told to shut up and do whatever her lawyers told her to do. Auntie's lawyer definitely needs to testify.

Another slapin the face to the American tax payer. She should be removed and Obama exposed