Obama's illegal aunt can stay in US until 2010 in asylum bid

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Obama aunt can stay in US until 2010 in asylum bid

By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer Lavoie, Associated Press Writer

– Wed Apr 1, 1:57 pm ET

BOSTON – President Barack Obama's aunt will remain in the United States until at

least next year as she awaits a chance to make her case before an immigration

judge in her bid for asylum from her native Kenya.

Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUH'-nee awn-YAHN'-goh) had an initial appearance in U.S.

Immigration Court in Boston on Wednesday. At the brief hearing, a judge set her

case to be heard Feb. 4, 2010.

Onyango wore a curly red wig to the hearing and declined to comment to reporters

as she was led away from court by her attorneys and police from the Federal

Protective Service, a component of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

responsible for security at federal buildings.

Onyango, 56, first applied for asylum in 2002, but her request was rejected and

she was ordered deported in 2004. She did not leave the country and continued to

live in public housing in Boston.

Her lawyer, Cleveland immigration attorney Margaret Wong, said in a statement

Wednesday that Onyango first applied for asylum " due to violence in Kenya, " but

she did not reveal what grounds she has cited in her renewed bid for asylum. The

court hearing was closed at her lawyer's request.

Wong's spokesman, Mike , said the next hearing date was set for nearly a

year later because Judge Leonard Shapiro's calendar is so booked.

Ilana Greenstein, a Boston immigration attorney who handles a large volume of

asylum cases, said 10 months is not an unusual lag time between hearings in

immigration court.

" That's just the way it goes, " she said. " Most of the judges are so overloaded,

their case logs are so astronomical that they are forced to set cases out up to

18 months. "

The hearing next February is known as an " individual hearing, " or merits

hearing, when Onyango will be given the opportunity to present her reasons for

seeking asylum. The Department of Homeland Security acts as a prosecutor at such

hearings. The judge will then decide if Onyango will be allowed to stay in the

United States or whether she will be deported.

Obama has said he did not know his aunt was living here illegally and believes

laws covering the situation should be followed.

Onyango's status as an illegal alien was revealed just days before Obama was

elected in November. After intense media coverage, Onyango left Boston and went

to Cleveland to live with a relative.

In December, a judge agreed to suspend her deportation order and reopen her

asylum case.

Wong said in a statement that she is " working hard to keep matters in the court

system and towards a favorable outcome for Ms. Onyango. "

Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's late father, first moved to the United

States in 2000.

Since Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, periodic tensions have

arisen among the Luos — Onyango's tribe — and some of Kenya's other tribes,

including the Kikuyus, the largest tribe in Kenya.

In 2008, more than 1,000 people were killed in the East African nation following

a disputed presidential poll, in which a Luo candidate, Raila Odinga, was

declared the loser to President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu.

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.