Obama kin’s misery over illegal US stay

BOSTON, Wednesday

A Kenyan aunt of US President Barack Obama has told of her anguish at the possibility of some people using her immigration status to attack the American first family.

Ms Zeituni Onyango buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she described her anguish over no longer having contact with Mr Obama and his family after the revelation she had been living illegally for years in the United States in public housing.

Ms Onyango told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that she is troubled that her immigration woes have made her a political liability to her nephew.

Ms Onyango, the half-sister of Mr Obama’s father, who is deceased, said that she has exiled herself from the family after attending Mr Obama’s inauguration because she didn’t want to become fodder for his foes.

Mr Obama and his family have not reached out to her either, she said.

“Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all,” said Ms Onyango, whose appeal for asylum from her native Kenya is before an immigration judge in Boston.

The Obamas are her only family in the United States, she said.

“It is very sad when such a thing happens. There are people, outsiders, you know, they come in between, they divide a family,” she said last week. “It’s not easy.”

Ms Onyango, 57, is protective of Mr Obama and said she never asked him to intervene in her case and didn’t tell him about her immigration difficulties.

Carry my cross

“I carry my own cross,” she said. “He has nothing to do with my problem.”

The White House said Mr Obama has had no involvement in his aunt’s case and believes it should run its ordinary course.

Ms Onyango helped care for the president’s half-brothers and sister while living with Barack Obama Sr. in Kenya. She moved to the United States in 2000 and applied for asylum in 2002, but her request was rejected and she was ordered deported in 2004.

However, she did not leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston. She had been a health care volunteer but not since her status became public. She refused to discuss how she affords to live now or who is paying for her lawyer.

Onyango said she previously had no trouble visiting Mr Obama when he was a state senator in Illinois or after he became a US senator, though she declined to discuss details of how often she had contact with Mr Obama and his family.

Her tiny apartment in a modest subsidized public housing complex for seniors and the disabled is adorned with photographs of her with Mr Obama at the Illinois Statehouse, the president’s official portrait, his family, the inauguration, her children and African wildlife.

She is disabled and learning to walk again after being paralyzed for more than three months because of an autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Her status as an illegal alien was revealed in October 2008, days before Mr Obama was elected. Mr Obama said he did not know his aunt was living in the US illegally and said he believes the law should be followed.

Asylum case

A judge agreed to suspend Ms Onyango’s deportation order in December and reopened her asylum case. A hearing will be held in February, when Ms Onyango can present her reasons for seeking asylum. The judge will then decide if she will be deported.

Her attorney, Ms Margaret Wong, said Ms Onyango first applied for asylum because of violence in Kenya. 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 Ms Onyango’s relationship to the president could strengthen her claim that she would be subjected to danger at home.
Ms Onyango declined to discuss the details of her case, citing the pending appeal. (AP)