Obama’s Aunt Is Granted Asylum

[Casino67]

NYT's The Caucus:



BOSTON — Immigration officials have granted asylum to President Obama’s aunt and will allow her to stay in the United States, her lawyers said Monday.

Zeituni Onyango, who lives in public housing in Boston, is the half-sister of Mr. Obama’s late father and is from Kenya. She moved to the United States in 2000 on a valid visa and has been seeking asylum since 2002.

Her lawyers announced the immigration officials’ decision Monday at their offices in Cleveland. She could become a citizen in about six years.

Ms. Onyango, who is in her late 50s, applied for asylum in 2002 and was rejected in 2004 and ordered to leave the country. She continued to fight the case and in April 2009, Judge Leonard Shapiro in Boston stayed her case until February, when hearings were held in the case.

Ms. Onyango had lived in relative anonymity in Boston until just before the 2008 presidential election, when The Times of London found her in what it described as “rundown public housing.”

At the time, Mr. Obama’s aides said that he did not know his aunt was in the United States illegally and that “any and all appropriate laws” covering her situation should be followed. The aides said he would not intervene in her case and that the two had had no contact.

It turned out that Ms. Onyango made small contributions to Mr. Obama’s campaign, amounting to $265, but the campaign returned them. She attended Mr. Obama’s inauguration in January in Washington but the two did not see each other.

The immigration courts have an extensive backlog, and her case was being watched closely to see if it might be expedited.

Mr. Obama wrote about his aunt in his 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” because she served as his guide in Kenya — and his guide to some painful family history — during his visit in 1988. She said that Mr. Obama’s father, who died in a car crash in 1982, took her in when her husband became abusive and she had no money.

At one point, Ms. Onyango left Boston for Cleveland, where she had relatives, to escape the media attention. She later returned to Boston to press her case for asylum. She is being represented by Margaret Wong, a lawyer in Cleveland.

In seeking asylum for Ms. Onyango, Ms. Wong has argued all along that if she were forced to return to Kenya, she would face undue attention and perhaps danger because her nephew was so famous; in order to be granted asylum, people must show that they would face persecution in their home countries.

Ms. Wong’s office said Monday that following the granting of asylum, a person can receive an A5 Work Authorization, which allows for application for a work permit, a social security number and a driver’s license or state identification card. After one year from the date of the decision, the person can apply for a permanent green card and then in five years could apply for citizenship.

[Pepper]

Let's hear it for Zeituni.

 

I am sure there are no political connections involved here. This is plain truth, justice, and the American way.

 

Her lawyers announced the immigration officials’ decision Monday at their offices in Cleveland. She could become a citizen in about six years.

 

And a fast track no less. Wow. Who would have thought.