Thread: Obama aunt who stayed in US illegally dies at 61

Obama aunt who stayed in US illegally dies at 61

Updated 2:05 pm, Tuesday, April 8, 2014

BOSTON (AP) — An aunt of President Barack Obama who was denied asylum in the U.S. but stayed illegally for years has died in Massachusetts. Zeituni Onyango (zay-TOO'-nee ohn-YAHN'-goh) was 61.

Cleveland attorney Margaret Wong represented Onyango in her immigration case. She says Onyango died Tuesday in a Boston rehabilitation center. She says Onyango was being treated for cancer and respiratory problems.

Onyango moved to the U.S. from Kenya in 2000 and was denied asylum by an immigration judge in 2004. She remained in the country illegally, living in Boston public housing. Her immigration status was reported by The Associated Press days before Obama's election in 2008.

Onyango was a half-sister of Obama's late father. She was granted asylum in 2010 by a judge who said she could be in danger if she returned to Kenya because of her relationship with Obama.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/art...61-5386644.php

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http://www.alipac.us/f12/us-court-gr...n-aunt-189418/

5/17/2010

While I certainly don't relish in the suffering of ANYONE, I have to wonder: Was she on Obamacare?

ByRebecca KaplanCBS NewsApril 8, 2014, 5:25 PM
Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, dies at 61


Zeituni Onyango CBS Boston

President Obama's half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango, died in Boston last night, according to the law firm that represented her during her asylum case in Boston's immigration court.

Onyango, who was 61, died in her sleep after taking ill in January. She was the half-sister of Mr. Obama's late father, Barack Obama Sr.

She first came into the public eye in 2008 when reporters discovered she was living illegally in South Boston. At the time, then-Sen. Obama said he had no knowledge of her status. She had emigrated from Kenya in 2000, seeking political asylum, but her request was denied in 2004. She would later tell CBS Boston that she couldn't afford to leave the U.S. when her asylum request was denied. She lived in a homeless shelter for two years before being assigned public housing.

Immigration attorney Margaret Wong later helped her win her asylum case in Boston's immigration court, which she won in 2010. She later received a green card.

Wong said Onyango was "very good with computers" and "loved to travel, mostly by train." She wrote a memoir called "Tears of Abuse" that was published in 2012. A letter from Wong confirming Onyango's death said she visited Mr. Obama when he was a senator in Illinois before she moved to the U.S.

She is not the only relative of the president to have run into trouble with immigration authorities. The president's Kenyan-born half uncle, Onyango Obama, ignored a deportation order in 1992 but was granted permission to stay in the U.S. last December.

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