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Judge: Leak by US Official Put Obama's Aunt at Risk
Updated: 29 minutes ago

Lisa Flam Contributor
AOL News
(Aug. 1 -- The federal immigration judge who granted President Barack Obama's aunt asylum three months ago said in his decision that a federal official anonymously leaked her immigration status to the media, an illegal breach that put her at risk in her native Kenya.

U.S. Immigration Judge Leonard Shapiro granted asylum to Zeituni Onyango in May. His written decision was released through the Freedom of Information Act and was first reported on this week by The Boston Globe.

The 29-page ruling cites an Associated Press story from Nov. 1, 2008, that said Onyango was in the United States illegally and living quietly in Boston public housing. The story says two sources confirmed the information, one a federal law enforcement official who spoke anonymously.

Zeituni Onyango, President Barack Obama's aunt, was granted asylum three months ago. When a federal official leaked her immigration status to the media, it put her at risk in her native Kenya, according to the judge in the case.

The story also said an immigration judge had rejected an asylum request for Onyango four years earlier. The story was published just days before Obama was elected president.

Shapiro found that a U.S. official disclosed Onyango's status and identity as Obama's close relative and called it "a reckless and illegal violation of her right to privacy which has exposed her to great risk."

Shapiro noted the timing of the story and the political context. The disclosure "intentionally" linked Onyango's status as an asylum seeker with Obama's campaign, "and the effect was the politicize confidential information about the Respondent which the United States government had no authority to release."

The ruling said the "illegality and political ramifications of this breach were made apparent" afterward when President George W. Bush "swiftly issued a directive requiring federal agents to obtain high-level approval before arresting fugitive immigrants."

Shapiro said he found that Onyango "will be a target if she is removed to Kenya, not only for individuals opposed to the United States government or to President Obama, but also for members of the Kenyan government who oppose President Obama's politics and/or his ethnicity, which the Respondent shares."

The ruling noted that the Department of Homeland Security, which had sought her deportation, agreed that Onyango was identified in the media but did not concede that a government official was responsible.

Onyango arrived in the U.S. in October 2000 as a "non-immigrant visitor for pleasure" and was allowed to stay until April 24, 2001. She sought asylum in December 2002 and was ordered deported in 2004 but didn't leave.

The Associated Press reported today that an internal investigation into the leak is almost complete, citing an unidentified homeland security official. AOL News left a message seeking comment from the department today.

According to the ruling, the department argued that the 2008 article did not create a new risk to Onyango because it did not disclose facts about her asylum application and because she and her lawyer had given details about the case to the media.

Onyango, 58, lived in a public housing development in Boston in near obscurity and never told neighbors that it was her nephew who would become the country's first black president, the Globe reported.

Obama did not intervene in the case, the AP said. Onyango's half-brother was Obama's father.

Onyango's lawyer, Scott Bratton, said the disclosure put Onyango at risk. "She is known to everybody now," he told the AP. "She is known to have applied for asylum. She's been thrust into the spotlight, and because of that, she has a fear of returning."

Bratton told the Globe she has moved into a new public housing apartment in South Boston.