An illegal immigrant getting free government housing.  Hell, she might 
as well go live in the White House with BO.

===============================================


http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/08/obamas_aunt_turns_t
o_relatives_in_cleveland/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed4

Obama's aunt turns to relatives in Cleveland
By Maria Sacchetti 
Globe Staff / November 8, 2008 

President-elect Barack Obama's aunt is with relatives in Cleveland and 
mulling her options to fight a deportation order, according to her 
immigration lawyer.

Margaret W. Wong, a lawyer in Cleveland, issued a statement saying 
Zeituni Onyango did not wish to comment further.

The 56-year-old half-sister of Obama's late father had said she would 
speak to a reporter after the election, but instead declined to comment 
and left her apartment in the Boston Housing Authority for Ohio.

"Her wish is for this matter to remain private," Wong said in a 
statement. "She is in Cleveland with close family members resting and is 
under good care."

An immigration judge denied Onyango's application for political asylum 
and ordered her deported four years ago. But since then she has been 
living in federal and state-funded public housing in Boston.

Immigration lawyers have said Onyango might have several options to stay 
in this country, even if she were facing a deportation order. She could 
appeal to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow her to stay 
while she tries to reopen her asylum case, for instance.

The circumstances of Onyango's asylum petition have not been released.

Onyango's immigration status, and her residency in public housing, 
generated controversy just before the presidential election.

Wong told the Associated Press yesterday that Onyango was upset that 
news of her immigration status had been leaked to the news media because 
she believed it was intended to hurt Obama's candidacy.

But others questioned why she had been allowed to live there.

Illegal immigrants are ineligible for federal housing benefits, and 
Onyango had lived in federally subsidized housing until she transferred 
to state-funded housing this year for medical reasons.

State officials said a 1977 federal consent decree in Massachusetts 
prohibits them from denying illegal immigrants state-funded public 
housing.

As of yesterday, Onyango was still a tenant in the West Broadway housing 
project, according to Bill McGonagle, deputy director of the Boston 
Housing Authority.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has asked its inspector general and 
Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate the leak because 
the overseeing Department of Homeland Security's policy is to maintain 
confidentiality of such cases.

Several neighbors, who declined to give their names, described Onyango 
this week as a slim, tall woman who recently had back surgery and was in 
the hospital for several weeks. They said she walked with a limp and 
needed help from neighborhood children to carry in her groceries.

Onyango often dispensed advice to her younger neighbors, such as urging 
them to lock the front door to prevent strangers from harming their 
children. They said she never mentioned that she was Obama's aunt.

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti{at}globe.com.

CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999 
Democrats --  The party responsible for the housing meltdown ....


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