Thread: Obama's Illegal Alien Aunti: The Rest of the Story

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Michelle Malkin :: Townhall.com Columnist
Obama's Illegal Alien Aunti: The Rest of the Story
by Michelle Malkin


I hope Barack Obama remembered to thank George Bush on behalf of his illegal alien aunt this week. The lame-duck Republican president did the Democratic president-elect a generous -- and dangerous -- favor right before Election Day: Putting politics above homeland security, the Bush administration ordered immigration authorities across the country to halt all deportation enforcement actions until the campaign season was over.

According to my sources, the Bush administration issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his Kenyan half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango. The Associated Press reported on Nov. 1 that Onyango was a deportation evader -- one of an estimated 700,000 illegal alien absconders who have ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country. The wire report mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security distributed "an unusual nationwide directive within Immigration and Customs Enforcement requiring any deportations prior to Tuesday's election to be approved at least at the level of ICE regional directors."

But the politicized order was even worse than the AP reported. The deportation process wasn't simply slowed down for public relations reasons and fear of a media backlash. The process was completely frozen.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement source familiar with Western field offices told me: "The ICE fugitive operations group throughout the United States was told to stand down until after the election from arresting or transporting anyone out of the United States. This was done to avoid any mistakes of deporting or arresting anyone who could have a connection to the election, i.e., anyone from Kenya who could be a relative. The decision was election-driven."

Another source close to ICE operations in a Southern California field office confirmed that immigration officials there received the same directive: "The reason they included all offices in the United States was to show that they were not targeting the district office where Aunti lived. They don't want to pick her up by mistake and cause a big problem."

In other words, the Bush Department of Homeland Security determined that protecting Obama from the negative publicity surrounding a potential arrest of his illegal alien aunt was more important to the general welfare of the country than tracking down untold numbers of deportation absconders who received an extra three-day pass last week. DHS refuses to comment publicly about the case. Warped homeland security priorities are bipartisan. Democratic Rep. John Conyers has called for an immediate investigation -- not into the rank politicizing of our deportation policies, but into who leaked Onyango's deportation fugitive status to the press.

Question: Why shouldn't this information be public?

As for President-elect Obama, his true views about ICE are well known. Despite telling Katie Couric that his aunt should be required to follow the law because "we're a nation of laws. … I'm a strong believer you have to obey the law," Obama scolded ICE agents, who are doing their jobs, for "terrorizing" communities.

Onyango arrived in the United States in 2000 on a temporary visa. Her asylum request was rejected in 2004. She defied the immigration court order to go back to Kenya, moved into Boston public housing and is now hiding with relatives in Cleveland while contemplating how to extend her illegal stay.

Question: Will an Obama White House reinstate the deportation enforcement freeze in Ohio? Wouldn't want to "terrorize" the community.

(Meanwhile, real terrorists have benefited enormously from lax enforcement of deportation orders and asylum loopholes. Ramzi Yousef, Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer and Mir Aimal Kansi all exploited our catch-and-release system by invoking asylum and evading swamped authorities before plotting and executing jihadist attacks.)

Onyango's options, like those of hundreds of thousands of deportation fugitives like her, are wide open. With the help of a seasoned immigration lawyer, she can take another bite at the judicial apple and appeal her deportation order. She can take her case all the way to the Supreme Court. She can find an illegal alien sanctuary church to give her refuge. Or she can take advantage of the longstanding congressional practice of creating "special relief" bills to help individual deportation fugitives escape punishment and acquire U.S. citizenship.

The post-9/11 Bush homeland security equation looks pretty much like the pre-9/11 one, and that will continue under Obama: Cowardice plus rank opportunism times political correctness equals a lasting recipe for immigration chaos.
http://tinyurl.com/62p9pg

"special relief" bills to help individual deportation fugitives escape punishment and acquire U.S. citizenship.

You know his indigent illegal alien aunti will get one of these babies in January. I think her family should have to pay her support, not taxpayers.

Dixie

The person who wrote this needs to read some of the following articles:


Past year saw record 349,041 deportations

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137700.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/america ... 60558.html


Deportations up from Chicago-based Midwest ICE region

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137725.html

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pb ... /811090291


Crackdown Leads to More Deportations in Metro N.Y. Area

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137726.html

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/115193


N.J. deportations up 25 percent in year

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137727.html

http://www.northjersey.com/news/immigra ... 72304.html


Georgia, Carolinas deportations rise

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137729.html

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/nov ... rise61133/


Record number of deportations from Texas in last 12 months

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137695.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6099494.html


Illegal immigrant arrests rise in Virginia

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137676.html

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp ... ?track=rss


Immigration holds placed on 35,000 more SoCal inmates

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137366.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/stat ... jails.html


15,770 Illegal aliens feel heat from ICE in Houston area

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137658.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 99683.html


Deportations up in region that includes Nebraska

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137400.html

http://journalstar.com/news/nebraska/do ... 486135.txt


Ventura Co., CA: Immigrants in Jails Up 55% over 2007

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137652.html

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2 ... ils-up-55/


Deportation numbers rise in Alaska Washington, Oregon

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137606.html

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/583471.html


ICE operation targeting fugitives yields 111 arrests in Fla.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137485.html

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0811/081107miami.htm


30,000 illegal aliens waiting for deportation in the U.S.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137495.html

http://observers.france24.com/en/conten ... entres-usa


Illegal Immigrant Deportations Up 7% In Colo, Wyo

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137442.html

http://cbs4denver.com/local/illegal.imm ... 57926.html


AZ. Led The Nation With 72,955 deportations in 2008

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-137459.html

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ ... TE=DEFAULT

Please read up on the Wells vs.Donofrio case before SCOTUS.The website Natural Born Citizen of attorney, Leo Donofrio in the case will explain his case.It is coming out of NJ and looks like it has promise.For those who want HOPE.

Ability to Help Illegal Immigrant Aunt May be Limited
President-elect Barack Obama will not have executive power to unilaterally grant his aunt legal immigration status.
FOXNews.com

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

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President-elect Barack Obama has promised to use his executive power to help struggling Americans with a variety of issues, but his hands may be tied when it comes to helping an illegal immigrant -- his own aunt -- stay in the country.

Zeituni Onyango was ordered to leave the country in 2004 by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya.

Her illegal-immigrant status was revealed to the public days before Obama's election on November 4, and now she is fighting the deportation order.

Onyango fled her public housing apartment in Boston, where she had lived for five years, and is now staying with relatives in Cleveland.

Contrary to popular opinion, Obama will not have executive power to unilaterally grant her, or anyone, legal immigration status when he becomes president. His only course of action would be to appeal to Congress to file a private bill providing citizenship.

"It is an avenue that exists for anyone," said Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But for President Obama, it would be an avenue dotted with pitfalls.

"It looks untoward," immigration attorney Jay Marks said, although he said would probably succeed if he tried.

"For a guy like me, I might as well be trying to have a snowball not melt in hell," said Marks, who has unsuccessfully pursued this option for many of his clients. "But for him, it might be easier to do."

Marks said he would advise Obama to do nothing, in order to avoid any appearance of showing favoritism. He added that the publicity surrounding his aunt's case shouldn't affect the outcome, especially to her advantage.

"Having seen what goes in immigration court, I don't see how this is going to favor her," he said.

"The immigration judge would have to spell out his decision in very clear terms in what should be a lengthy decision and whether or not this woman has met her burden under the law," he said.

Onyango will need to show that she has physically spent 10 years in the country, has not been convicted of certain crimes and has qualifying relatives with extreme hardship.

Her attorney, Margaret Wong, has said she may file a motion to reopen Onyango's case or file an appeal for her to stay on humanitarian grounds.

Onyango is Obama's father's half-sister. The president-elect met his father's side of his family for the first time when he traveled to Africa 20 years ago. He referred to Onyango as "Auntie Zeituni" when describing the trip in his memoir, calling her "a proud woman."

She attended Obama's swearing-in to the U.S. Senate in January 2005, but his aides have said Obama provided no assistance in getting her a tourist visa and he doesn't know the details of her stay. They say said he last heard from her about two years ago when she called to say she was in Boston, but he did not visit her there.

Onyango has been ailing since her immigration status became public, and she may have neurological problems, said her spokesman, Michael Rogers.

He said Onyango is happy in Cleveland and is hopeful that she will win her deportation fight.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/12 ... t-limited/