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| Obama's aunt gets stay of deportation, new hearing |
| 2009-02-02 |
| A Cleveland immigration lawyer who won a stay of deportation for Barack Obama's aunt is confident that the presidential relative will win her plea for asylum. Margaret Wong and Associates will represent Zeituni Onyango, the 56-year-old Kenyan half-sister of Obama's late father, at an immigration hearing April 1 in Boston. The stay of the deportation order was issued Dec. 17, and an immigration judge reopened the request for asylum Dec. 30. "The judge will be looking at evidence that they may not have been aware of four years ago," said Michael Rogers, spokesman for Wong. "Wong is optimistic. We would have preferred to not conduct this case in the media spotlight, but that's not going to happen." U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement officials could not be reached to comment on Onyango's case. Onyango left her home in public housing in Boston in December and took a train to Cleveland to escape the media attention. Once here, she hired Wong to represent her in her attempts to remain in the United States. She stayed with relatives in Cleveland's African immigrant community, said Wong. Rogers said she moved back to Boston sometime later in December. Onyango attended some of this month's inaugural festivities. She enjoyed seeing relatives from Kenya, Rogers said, but she did not meet with the president. Rogers stressed that Onyango has neither asked for nor received any assistance from Obama. Onyango came to the United States in 2000 to join her son and asked for asylum in the United States. In 2004, Immigration Customs Enforcement officials rejected the request and ordered her to leave the country. Kenya has been shaken by violence in recent years, including a period of two months in 2007 in which 1,500 people died in the East African nation. Onyango was thrust into the national spotlight when her ancestry emerged during the height of the presidential campaign and she was identified as Obama's aunt. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #2 Keep her, deport Nancy Pelosi. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-02-02 20:05 |
| #1 Kenya has been shaken by violence in recent years, including a period of two months in 2007 in which 1,500 people died in the East African nation. Kenya, population 40 million. 1,500 homicides in two months is 9,000 per year, or 23 per 100,000 at its worst. Compare to Washington, DC at 69 per 100,000. Go back to Kenya -- even at its worst, it's safer than Washington, DC by a factor of 3. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2009-02-02 19:36 |