Barack Obama's aunt faces crucial immigration hearing

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: the guardian

Zeituni Onyango, the aunt of Barack Obama who has lived in the US for
the past eight years, four of them illegally, is preparing for a crucial immigration hearing in Boston on Wednesday that could see her deported back to her native Kenya.

The 56-year-old woman, described affectionately by Obama as "Auntie Zeituni" in his bestselling memoir Dreams from My Father, is thought to have come to America in about 2000, living most the time in Boston. But in 2003 she became mired in immigration proceedings that culminated in a court order the following year ordering her deportation.

Her immigration status caused a ripple of controversy in the final days of last year's presidential campaign after the Times tracked her down to a special needs flat for disabled people in a rundown neighbourhood of south Boston.

When subsequently it was leaked that she had remained illegally in the US despite the court ruling, Obama was forced to comment, saying that he had not known about her status and suggesting she leave the country according to law. Since then the Obama administration has kept a scrupulous distance from the case.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/27/zeituni-onyango-obama-aunt-deportation-immigration

[vadawg]

1. gotta say its gotta be the same rules for everybody, shes already got a deport order

so as far as im concerned shes on the next plane, anything else looks like playing favourites.

[AlphaCentauri]

2. She may not receive the same treatment as other immigrants

Evelyn, a Haitian immigrant, wears a permanent tracking device while she awaits a decision from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on whether she will be deported back to Haiti or allowed to stay with her 5-year-old daughter, who was born in the U.S.

[quiller4]

6. Have you any idea how many people with deport orders

and awaiting appeal stay in this country for years? Putting her "on the next plane" would be treating her differently.

[vadawg]

8. Actually working daily with orders of deportation and ice holds

i dont think the general public will be bamboozled if suddenly she is allowed to stay.

[bloomington-lib]

3. I understand the need to have the rules applied to everyone

but having a nephew that is the President of the United States has to be of some kind of benefit.

[vadawg]

4. why, i dont think the constitution states that the family members of the president should not have

to obey the laws of the land. Watch what will happen if there is presidential meddling in this affair, she has already been served a deportation order like thousands of others. Do we really want to see that this administration is just as corrupt as others have been.

[AlphaCentauri]

5. ALIPAC's members are having bad dreams about that issue n/t

[jb5150]

7. I'm sure that someone behind the scenes

can assist her in the paperwork required so she can be here legally....

[Loudmxr]

9. I believe in the fair application of the laws...however

Because of my Irish heritage... and we know how to rule the world... and everyone's private lives...with all the proper and decent laws that can govern humankind.... except for me. I'm the exception y'know.

Let her stay.

[vadawg]

10. why let her stay, yet we deport others, this would be the height of hypocrasy

i hate when people think that the law shouldnt apply to certain people or groups. If you dont like the law change it, but until that happens we gotta enforce it.

[Optical.Catalyst]

11. These deportation proceedings are political in nature. For security reasons, she should stay.

Conservative forces within the Government are pushing to have Zeituni Onyango deported for the explicit purpose of hurting President Obama politically. This is a big mistake, not just from using Government powers for political purposes, but from a security standpoint as well.

Mrs. Onyango should immediately be granted full American Citizenship and place under some type of security protection. Deporting her to a foreign country is an open invitation to have her kidnapped and used as blackmail against our President.

[AlphaCentauri]

12. President Obama by executive order could grant her and other illegals amnesty

that would be a bold political move

[marshall]

13. At least she's kept her distance from him

I'm sure she's had offers from gossip rags to dish dirt about her nephew or complain or whatever story they want to manufacture to sell copies.