The obligatory “Obama’s aunt is an illegal alien” post
posted at 2:09 pm on November 1, 2008 by Allahpundit
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And so, after six months of being studiously ignored, amnesty makes a last-minute cameo.
The good news for “Aunti”? No matter who wins, her path to citizenship’s assured.
Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango’s case.
Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcment official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release…
Onyango’s case — coming to light just days before the presidential election — led to an unusual nationwide directive within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement requiring any deportations prior to Tuesday’s election to be approved at least at the level of ICE regional directors, the U.S. law enforcement official told the AP.
The unusual directive suggests that the Bush administration is sensitive to the political implications of Onyango’s case coming to light so close to the election.
The boss spent the wee hours of the morning devouring this story so I’ve got nothing left but scraps to pick through. First scrap: The One denies any knowledge of her immigration status, thereby confirming that the guy who famously said, “I am my brother’s keeper,” clearly isn’t his aunt’s. Second scrap: MM’s right, of course, that the same nutroots all-stars who’ve shrugged off politically motivated government snooping into Joe the Plumber’s records will find the feds’ leak here very, very troubling. Expect the inevitable special comment on Monday night’s “Countdown” to be highly nuanced indeed. Third scrap: Yes, Aunti donated illegally to the campaign — in the same small increments that keep so many of Obama’s donors out of FEC reports — and yes, they’re promising to refund the money. Because, you see, if there’s anyone who’s a stickler about accepting illegal donations, it’s Barack Obama.
Fourth and most important scrap: Any political fallout from this? The AP, at least, probably doesn’t think so or else it wouldn’t be dropping a hot potato in his lap 72 hours before the polls open. In better economic circumstances, with an anti-amnesty GOP nominee, this might have driven a little extra turnout. As it is, we’re poised to elect a guy who’s “certainly friendly” with a domestic terrorist. America’s willing to forgive him that, but it’s going to pitch a fit over a lost aunt no one’s heard of? If anything, this might earn The One a little vicarious sympathy: It ain’t for nothing that ICE issued that “unusual directive” making sure no one tries to deport her before the vote, and it won’t help McCain if this is seen as some sort of eleventh-hour dirty trick being played by Bush to try to help him win. Exit quotation: “I think people are suspicious about stories that surface in the last 72 hours of a national campaign.”
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What about coming to visit her brother, who has been a Boston resident since the sixties? Isn’t a tourist visa very different from a work visa?
Buy Danish on November 1, 2008 at 6:51 PM
Read above we think alike!
dhunter on November 1, 2008 at 4:36 PM
Palin should ask that 0B0mber reimburse the American taxpayer for any assistance his Aunti fleeced the American voters out of unless his idea of redistributing the wealth includes forcing the taxpayer to support illegal aliens!
Put the liar on the spot! Do It Sarah, do it NOW!
You’ve got the guts, the fight, do it for the future!
Draw a line in the sand here and now, no taxpayer funds to illegal alliens!
dhunter on November 1, 2008 at 6:56 PM
A tourist visa is different, but you still have to show you have a reason to return home.
Here’s a snippet from travel.us.gov:
I personally know many people that have been turned down for US visitor’s visas. The suspicion is that poor people with no substantial ties to their home countries will overstay and become illegal immigrants in the US.
MayBee on November 1, 2008 at 6:57 PM
She had substantial ties to her home country with lots and lots of relatives thanks to the Polygamous habits there :) The evidence of funds was probably more of a hurdle, although she had a job in Nairobi…
Buy Danish on November 1, 2008 at 7:06 PM
Buy Danish-
Yeah.
She either succesfully got a tourist visa or she pretended she had been back to Kenya.
The NYTs says (without linking) that at Obama’s swearing in she gave interviews indicating she had just flown in from Kenya for the event. There’s no indication Obama’s campaign actually thought that to be the truth. It would have been after she’d been turned down for Asylum, and she would have been in the US during that process. No way she gets turned down after a long asylum process and then gets another tourist visa a few months later.
The Obama campaign is playing word games.
MayBee on November 1, 2008 at 7:16 PM
That’s what lawyers do. Off to find the NY Times story before I go out for the evening.
Buy Danish on November 1, 2008 at 7:28 PM
Axelrod claims this is a dirty trick
(By the British press, no doubt)
drjohn on November 1, 2008 at 7:33 PM
At the time of the ceremony, Ms. Onyango and another relative said in interviews that they had flown to the United States from Kenya to witness the moment
Gosh, do you think the Times could give us the transcripts or more details or something?
CUALLL8R
Buy Danish on November 1, 2008 at 7:34 PM
George Onyango said that his aunt had left for the US about eight years ago but sent him e-mails.
Is this the famous ‘hut-dweller’ ??
Is this saying that hutboy was getting emails, or that Auntie sent ObamaTheGreat emails?
I’m confused.
pambi on November 1, 2008 at 7:53 PM
ROFLMAO.
progressoverpeace on November 1, 2008 at 8:00 PM
dr john- someone should ask Axelrod why this woman hasn’t been featured at any campaign events.
She’s the goat herder’s sister! It would have been beautiful!
MayBee on November 1, 2008 at 8:00 PM
MrScribbler on November 1, 2008 at 6:30 PM
dhunter on November 1, 2008 at 6:32 PM
You are right, I did actually mean the McCain Campaign. It appears that Fox is going to run with it but they may be the only ones. I think the point I am trying to get across, and obviously not well, is Sen. Obama’s dismissive attitude towards this story and this woman. It speaks volumes for the kind of man the country is thinking about putting into office. This woman’s plight, living in public housing basically a ward of the state is an improvement of her life and more importantly acceptable to him. Until she gets caught, now the laws must be enforced. For most of us, being a ward of the state is not going to be an improvement nor acceptable but that’s his goal.
Cindy Munford on November 1, 2008 at 8:00 PM
When they first announced his aunt was living in a welfare project home in Boston, that alone was clear enough that she was illegal. When someone there “vouched” for her as an exemplary resident, that set off flashing red lights that she was obviously illegal. The media kept referencing the slum she was in. Look at the photo of the building of her illegal US Boston residence posted online. The grounds are clean, the building freshly painted, and the roof looks solid. She is not living in a slum rat infested dump as the media alluded. She attended Obama’s swearing in ceremony, after which he tells her to lay low until after he’s elected POTUS. Yet she identified herself when reporters came to visit, rather than asking them to leave her alone. She had the nerve to ignore the order to leave the US, and Obama had the nerve not to set her up in a decent setting in her familial setting in Kenya.
Property in the family’s Kenyan village is cheap. So why not on his own initiative and through his own means provide them an inexpensive but efficient compound built on land the family already owns, a tutor and computer library, and opportunities to earn scholarships for their futures? Because Obama doesn’t care! Obama only spends money on himself or his crooked lawyer & political elitist peers, never on those with less than he has. Obama requires that you and I take care of his brother, though he has more money, power and influence than we. Obama breaks every promise to do good works that he has ever made.
maverick muse on November 1, 2008 at 8:19 PM
maverick muse on November 1, 2008 at 8:19 PM
If this guy get elected it is going to really shake my faith in the majority of the American people. It they can fall for this, they can fall for anything.
Cindy Munford on November 1, 2008 at 8:32 PM
OT, but Drudge has linked to the ‘civilian security force’ video !!
Go figure !
It seems oddly out of place, there, but I welcome the lead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fO-usAlqak&NR=1
(read the comments, below it, too)
pambi on November 1, 2008 at 8:56 PM
That’s the real reason this won’t have an impact. Just like Wright, McCain is going to for some reason feel like he’s taking a “high road” by ignoring this (when you KNOW Barry’s camp wouldn’t. Recall what an issue they made out of how many houses he owns).
Bottom line is this country is overwhelming anti-ILLEGAL immigration. Some PAC should be hammering Obama in adds for having his poor illegal immigrant aunt, living off our tax dollars in public housing, while making illegal political donations to his campaign (where’d she get that money, when she’s surviving on our tax dollars? And again, she’s not here legally and has no right to those dollars).
But the ad also needs to point out that this millionaire Barry doesn’t want to spread his wealth around to all of this dirt poor family, yet he wants to spread our wealth… and continue giving it to people like his illegal alien fugitive aunt.
RightWinged on November 1, 2008 at 9:14 PM
BTW, Obama’s denial about knowing she was here sounds like another “Not the man I knew…” type of comment.
RightWinged on November 1, 2008 at 9:20 PM
“This is Obama’s Aunt”
“This is Obana’s Aunt on welfare”
Argggh he aggravates the H outta me.
What a steaming dungheap !!
pambi on November 1, 2008 at 9:38 PM
We’ve already heard every single excuse/explanation that BHO ever uses to answer any problem … several times each.
progressoverpeace on November 1, 2008 at 9:41 PM
We’ve already heard every single excuse/explanation that BHO ever uses to answer any
probleminquiries about his past associations (now including family) several times each.progressoverpeace on November 1, 2008 at 9:41 PM
FIFY
Oh, wait ! All associations/family ARE problems !!
My Bad. Carry on.
(pretty amazing, to think about, tho.. sheesh)
pambi on November 1, 2008 at 10:20 PM
Half brother, half sisters, half aunts, half living in poverty.
Where in the F did we find this Obama trash, the Jerry Springer show?
What is up with these people ?
Do they just screw the nearest person in the room?
TheSitRep on November 2, 2008 at 8:32 AM
There’s something very suspicious about the timing alright if you collate the dates from various reports.
Also as Mark Steyn notes, she is not an illegal but technically a fugitive alien.
saint on November 2, 2008 at 9:14 AM
Bingo. I think the reason that Obama’s campaign said 2004 originally and not 2005 is because it’s possible to assume that her deportation order came after the swearing-in ceremony.
Why is not a single news outlet asking La Bolt, Burton, Plouffe, or Obama how they got the invitation to her?
Why does the New York Times mention that she was interviewed after the swearing-in (claiming she had flown in from Kenya, something she may have been coached to say) but not provide us with the interview itself so we can see exactly what was said, not their Bowlderized version of it?
Buy Danish on November 2, 2008 at 10:44 AM
Just to be clear - there can be no leak about a person being a fugitive.
corona on November 2, 2008 at 10:29 PM
Well I have a bit of a question that is off the mark.
I want to know if she has EVER VOTED?
Has any one looked at the voter rolls for that area?
ColdWarrior57 on November 3, 2008 at 11:57 AM
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