Another Obama Relative Fights Deportation to Kenya

If Barrack Obama had a mugshot, it might look like this

First it was his Kenyan Aunt Zeituni appealing her deportation from the United States, and then it was his Kenyan Uncle Omar, and now it's his Kenyan - what? second cousin? maybe something else? - George Ware Obama.

According to yesterday's Daily Caller (here) George W. Obama appealed an order of removal before the Board of Immigration Appeals in Arlington, Virginia, on November 6 and was denied.

Quoting George W's immigration attorney, The Daily Caller says he is pursuing a request for asylum based on his alleged fear of becoming a target for terrorist retaliation against his Presidential cousin - or something - if he is sent back home. That isn't going well for him, in part because "Obama has what are called 'negative equities' on his record, including DUIs and other crimes."

A few minutes of googling turned up three mugshots for George W., all taken in different Georgia jurisdictions in the Atlanta metro area, one for driving while intoxicated in Gwinnett County, another DUI plus driving with a suspended or revoked license in Decatur, and one for battery in Cobb County.

Maybe he'll keep on appealing until he hits the jackpot and gets to stay, just like the Massachusetts branch of his extended family did. Until then, George W. resides in the Rappahannoch Regional Facility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Boston Illegal: Uncle Omar Goes To Court

Onyango "Uncle Omar" Obama, that distant-but-not-distant-enough Kenyan relative of President Obama, appeared in Framingham Mass District Court today and filed a motion to suppress evidence from his drunk driving arrest last August. He's going to argue that his arrest was improper and therefore his subsequent search was unconstitutional. Meanwhile, he remains free and continues to be employed at a Framingham liquor store (photo above, courtesy of tmz.com).

The stakes are high. Since Uncle Omar is an illegal alien and federal fugitive with an outstanding deportation order hanging over his head, his conviction on a drunk driving charge could threaten, however implausibly, to end his long sojourn in America.

I've posted about Uncle Omar before, as well as about his charming sister "Aunt Zeituni," both of them long-time illegal residents of the Boston area. Zeituni's own deportation from the USA was finally avoided when she was granted political asylum on her third try. Hint-hint, nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

By coincidence, I just finished reading an excellent biography of President Obama's father (The Other Barack) written by Boston Globe reporter Sally Jacobs. She untangles the complicated family tree that connects the Onyango siblings to our chief executive, and also explains why they are so drawn to the Boston area. It turns out that both Massachusetts and alcohol abuse are reoccurring themes in the history of the elder Obama and his fragmented family.

Obama's Uncle Omar Arrested; Next Step, Amnesty Or Asylum?

Another of President Obama's Kenyan relatives has been arrested in Massachusetts after living there illegally for decades. First it was Obama's Aunt Zeituni, who defied multiple deportation orders for several years until Immigration Judge Leonard I. Shapiro granted her asylum and legal residency in May 2010. Now, it's Obama's Uncle Omar, who got busted for drunk driving in Framingham last week and is being held without bail on an old federal immigration warrant.

An illegal immigrant from Kenya busted for drunken driving after nearly striking a cop car in Framingham is the uncle of President Obama, the Herald has learned.

Obama Onyango told cops he wanted to “call the White House” after he was nabbed for OUI Aug. 24 after nearly plowing his SUV into a police cruiser. He was arraigned Thursday and was ordered held without bail because he was wanted on a federal immigration warrant, officials said.

Mike Rogers, a spokesman for Cleveland immigration attorney Margaret Wong, who is representing Onyango, confirmed that the 67-year-old is the president’s uncle. Wong is the same lawyer who represented the president’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, in her fight to win asylum last year.

Reached at her apartment in a South Boston public housing complex today, Zeituni Onyango said of her brother’s arrest: “Why don’t you go to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washingon, D.C. and ask your president? Not me.” She then hung up on a reporter.

[TSB note: That is an excellent idea. I will wait for the White House press corps to ask the President's spokesman about Uncle Omar.]

The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.

Zeituni and Obama Onyango are brother and sister, Rogers told the Herald today.

The two are the children of the president’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, and his third wife, Sarah, according to the London Times.

The Times also reported that Obama Onyango is the man referred to as “Uncle Omar” in the president’s 1995 book, “Dreams from My Father.” In the book, President Obama writes about his Uncle Omar as “the uncle who had left for America 25 years ago and had never come back.”

Sarah Obama is called “granny” by the president because she raised his father, Barack Obama Sr., whose mother was Hussein Obama’s second wife, Akumu, the Times reported.

Somehow, I don't feel up to doing the mental math involved in understanding that family tree. First, second, and third wives ... aunts and uncles however many times removed ... half (quarter?) brothers and sisters ... who knows about the cousins? It's more than a simple monogamist like me can comprehend.

But one thing I do understand. There is no chance, no chance at all, that Uncle Omar will ever come back from America.

Aunt Zeituni Gets Asylum

The Kenyan Aunt of the President of the United States (KAOPOTUS), Ms. Zeituni Onyango, has finally prevailed over the legal system and been awarded asylum in the United States by an immigration court.

Our KAOPOTUS, whose situation I've been following since last year (here, here, and here), arrived in the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2000 and applied for political asylum in 2002, reportedly citing fears of violence in her native Kenya. Her request was turned down in 2004. She appealed the rejection of her request twice, but was denied each time and ordered to leave the country. Onyango remained in her Boston apartment illegally - and without any difficultly - until April of 2009, when a judge gave her permission to stay in the United States while he considered her case.

After three denials of her asylum request, the fourth time was the charm. According to today's Boston Herald:

A jubilant Zeituni Onyango celebrated in South Boston today after learning a U.S. immigration court granted her asylum - a decision her neighbors speculated was probably helped by her nephew, President Obama.

“It’s obvious her nephew helped,” said neighbor Marion Swain. “She’s a very nice person - very well spoken. That’s life.”

Onyango faced being deported to Kenya by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but a judge ruled she can now apply for a work visa and green card.

“I don’t want to be disturbed,” said Onyango through the door of her public housing unit on L Street.

She doesn't want to be disturbed? I can't blame her. The government didn't disturb her peace during the five years she was a fugitive, so why should the news media bother her now?

The basis for her asylum request was never made public. People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

“The asylum process is confidential and she wants to keep it that way, so we can’t get into details on why the judge granted asylum or the exact basis for her claim,” said her attorney Scott Bratton. He added: “She doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her.”

What's that? She just got awarded asylum after eight years of requests and appeals because she claims to face persecution back in Kenya, but now she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her? Is it too late to revoke that asylum?

Today's story was carried in Kenyan news media, and KAOPOTUS's claims of persecution generated quite a few reader comments (here), almost none of them favorable. This is a typical one:

This woman should never have been given assylum. At least not POLITICAL! What political persecution does she face in Kenya and what violence is she running away from? These are the people who go rubishing our country in foreign lands and degrade us. And there are many of such!

The case of Aunt Zeituni really sets the political asylum bar low. Will anyone get refused again? And by "anyone," I mean anyone not related to a U.S. president?

Aunt Zeituni Speaks to Associated Press

Ms. Zeituni Onyango, the Kenyan Aunt of the President of the United States (KAOPOTUS) and our nation's foremost immigration scofflaw, usually keeps a low profile but she poured out her woes in an interview with the Associated Press recently. It seems she is feeling neglected by her nephew since he has become President; on the other hand, she expresses nothing but warm regards for former President George W. Bush. Make of that what you will.

You can read the story here and watch the video here.

A few quotes:

A judge agreed to suspend Onyango's deportation order in December and reopened her asylum case. A hearing will be held in February, when Onyango can present her reasons for seeking asylum. The judge will then decide if she will be deported.
Her attorney, Margaret Wong [here's her website], said that Onyango first applied for asylum due to violence in Kenya, an East African nation fractured by cycles of electoral violence every five years. People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

Immigration experts say Onyango's relationship to the president could strengthen her claim she would be subjected to danger at home.

-- snip --

Onyango reserved special words of kindness for former President George W. Bush for a directive he put in place days before the election requiring federal agents get high-level approval to arrest fugitive immigrants, which directly affected Onyango. The directive made clear that U.S. officials worried about possible election implications of arresting Onyango.

She said she wants to thank Bush in person for the order, which gave her a measure of peace but was lifted weeks later.

"I loved President Bush," Onyango said while moving toward a framed photo of Bush and his wife standing with Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House on inauguration day. "He is my No. 1 man in my life because he helped me when I really needed that help."

Obama's Aunt Zeituni is Back in Boston

Ms. Zeituni Onyango, the Kenyan Aunt of the President of the United States (KAOPOTUS) and our nation's foremost immigration scofflaw, is back in Boston and living in public housing again while preparing for her next deportation hearing, the Boston Globe reports:

President Obama's aunt, a Kenyan immigrant who ignited controversy last year for living in the United States illegally, has returned to her quiet apartment in a Boston public housing complex to prepare for an April 1 deportation hearing.

When her case emerged in the waning days of the presidential race last year, Zeituni Onyango, a tall, frail-looking woman in her late 50s who walks with a cane, fled the media attention to stay with relatives in Cleveland.

She attended Obama's inauguration in January and, according to neighbors, returned to Boston a few weeks ago for her third attempt to fight removal from the United States. She had been living in the country illegally since she was ordered deported in 2004.

-- snip --

Onyango's fate will play out behind closed doors before veteran immigration Judge Leonard Shapiro in Boston. Onyango's lawyer Margaret Wong of Ohio successfully argued to reopen her case in December and have the proceedings closed to the public, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts.

Based on this and previous Boston Globe reporting, Aunt Zeituni has been living illegally in the U.S. for about ten years. In 2001, she fraudulently obtained a U.S. Social Security card. In 2002, she applied for asylum and was denied, appealed the denial, and lost. In 2004, she was ordered deported, but she ignored the order and stayed in her South Boston apartment. The immigration authorities ignored her in return, it seems, since, although she made no secret of her whereabouts after 2004, no immigration agent ever served a Habius Grabus on her. Although technically a fugitive, she has been living openly, applying for and receiving public assistance, donating money to Obama's campaign in 2008, and even attending an inaugural ball when Obama was sworn in. She was granted a stay of the long-ignored deportation order last December (not that anyone in the USG was going to slap handcuffs on her after she became our KAOPOTUS but, hey, just in case) and was given a leisurely eighteen months in which to prepare for yet another asylum hearing.

Appropriately enough, her next hearing is scheduled for April Fools Day. If an immigration judge rewards her decade of law-breaking with a grant of asylum, I don't know who will be the bigger fools: the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or the millions of immigrants who went to the trouble of complying with U.S. laws over the past ten years.

Visa Denial for Iraqi Translator

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A commenter asked me:

Have you seen this about the Iraqi translator that was denied a US visa? I'm wondering what your take on this sort of thing is.

I have no knowledge about consular or visa matters in general, much less this case in particular, so I looked up the State Department's publicly available description of the visa program under which the Iraqi translator applied.

He applied for a very narrow category of Special Immigrant Visa, for which he evidently is qualified. His problem was that in order to be approved for an SIV he also had to meet the regular admissibility requirements for an immigrant to the United States. The translator's criminal record makes him generally inadmissible, so his request for an SIV was denied.

U.S. immigration law seems reasonably clear on the matter of criminal records. The news reports I've seen often confused the SIV program for Iraqi and Afghan translators with the more generous programs for refugees who fear persecution, however, there are big differences. This comparison explains the differences, one of which is that SIV applicants:

Must be otherwise eligible to receive an immigrant visa and [be] otherwise admissible to the U.S. for permanent residence, except in determining such admissibility, the grounds for inadmissibility specified in section 212 (A)(4) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1182 (a)(4) relating to "public charge" shall not apply).

It has been alleged that the translator was denied an SIV out of some personal pique or bias against him by U.S. embassy personnel in Baghdad, but I very much doubt that was the case. The State Department has no choice but to implement the immigration laws that Congress passed and the President signed.

So, what can the translator in question do now? He might be able to apply for a waiver of inadmissibility by arguing that his crime of stealing Uday Hussein's car shouldn't be held against him [personally, I'd give him a waiver just for having had the stones to do that]. Or, possibly, he might reapply under the refugee visa program on grounds that he has a reasonable fear of persecution due to his affliation with the U.S. government.

The 'fear of persecution' angle is working for Aunt Zeituni, our KAOPOTUS, why shouldn't it work for one of our Iraqi translators as well?

Aunt Zeituni Gets Another Reprieve

The Boston Herald reports today that Obama’s aunt can stay in the U.S. another year. The Kenyan aunt of the President of the United States - I guess that makes her "KAOPOTUS" - is the country's most famous illegal alien and absconder. She has lived in South Boston public housing projects, unmolested by either state or federal authorities, since a federal immigration judge ordered her to leave the country in 2004.

She had already lived in the U.S. for several years before the law caught up with her. In fact, according to the Boston Herald, she received a U.S. Social Security card in 2001 (whether legally or illegally, I have no idea).

In 2002, she applied for political asylum in the U.S. due to violence in her native Kenya. I don't know what the crime rate is in Kenya, but it must be impressive indeed if KAOPOTUS prefered to continue living in the Old Colony housing development in Southie rather than go back home.

Highlights of the story:

President Barack Obama’s aunt, who has been living illegally in the U.S. for years, can stay in the United States until next year while she awaits a decision on her fight against deportation, according to a spokesman for her attorney.

- snip -

A hearing on an appeal of her deportation was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. today at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, which houses the Boston Immigration Court. The proceedings were closed to the public. Immigration Judge Leonard Shapiro scheduled a second hearing on her case [TSB note: in connection with a previously granted motion to reopen her case to fight the 2004 removal order] for Feb. 4, 2010.

So she can stay in the U.S. for at least one more year, and gets another chance to fight the 2004 deportation order. But hasn't she worn out her welcome in Boston? That city has already provided her with housing and medical services for at least seven years. Wouldn't KAOPOTUS be more comfortable in another public housing project, say, the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC?