Obama’s aunt in court fighting deportation

Zeituni Onyango in her home in Boston in November 2009 with a framed photograph of Obama and herself, when he was an Illinois state senator. Onyano was making a second bid for political asylum on Thursday.

BOSTON - President Barack Obama’s African aunt showed up in a wheelchair Thursday for a hearing before a Boston judge to argue she should be allowed to stay in the United States.

The heavily-guarded hearing for Kenya native Zeituni Onyango had started in U.S. Immigration Court and was closed to the public.

During a break, the 56-year-old left the hearing room for a few minutes, walking with her cane as her lawyer held her arm. Dressed in black pants and a red turtleneck sweater, Onyango walked slowly and smiled at the line of media waiting for the presidential relative.

Onyango has repeatedly denied requests for interviews.

Onyango, the half-sister of Obama’s late father, moved to the United States in 2000. Her first asylum request was rejected and she was ordered deported in 2004. But she didn’t leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston.

Her status as an illegal immigrant was revealed just days before Obama was elected.

Obama has said repeatedly that he didn’t know his aunt was living in the United States illegally and believes that laws covering the situation should be followed. If she wins asylum, he could look soft on immigration enforcement. If she loses, he could face criticism from immigrant advocacy groups.

‘Auntie Zeituni’
In his memoir, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,” Obama affectionately referred to Onyango as “Auntie Zeituni” and described meeting her during his 1988 trip to Kenya.

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The White House has said Obama is staying out of it.

Over the past decade, relatively few Kenyans have sought asylum in the United States: 343 in fiscal year 2008 — compared with 9,250 asylum requests from China and 6,424 from El Salvador — and only 60 Kenyans that year were granted asylum.

Posted by Ovi on February 04, 2010 - 1:02 pm . Filed under BUZZ, Immigration, Law & Tax, US. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry