How the fuck does she have a “legal defense team” when she’s living in public housing on our tax dollars? The judge miraculously reverses his decision after she stayed here illegally, why? There’s so much bullshit to the entire story I can’t see straight. http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100518obama_relative_wins_battle_to_stay_in_us_aunt_we_lucky/srvc=home&position=0
President Obama’s unsinkable Kenyan Aunt Zeituni Onyango - already adopted by her South Boston neighbors with open arms - can now call her L Street public housing home sweet home, after she was granted political asylum yesterday.
“She’s a very nice person - very well-spoken. I don’t mind her staying here. That’s life,” said Marion Swain, one of Onyango’s delighted pals at the Boston Housing Authority’s Monsignor Powers apartments, where the quirky, towering half-sister of Obama’s late father has become a fixture at Friday night bingo.
It remains a mystery how Aunt Zeituni’s legal team got the immigration judge to reverse himself on deportation, but the White House insists the president had nothing to do with it.
A man sunning himself in the Southie projects courtyard flashed two big thumbs up on hearing that U.S. Immigration Court Judge Leonard I. Shapiro - whose initial 2004 deportation order Onyango defied, staying in the United States illegally - would now let her apply for a work visa and green card based on private testimony she provided in February.
The basis of her request to remain in the United States has not been made public. Her defense team has claimed she suffers from the paralyzing autoimmune disorder Guillian-Barre syndrome, and one lawyer last year cited “violence in Kenya.”
“She’s a lady,” cooed a wheelchair-bound woman before Boston cops showed up at Aunt Zeituni’s behest to bounce the gathering press gaggle yesterday.
“I’m naked! I don’t want to be disturbed,” Onyango barked at news crews from her fourth-floor flat. She yelled at one local TV newsman, “Are you a predator?”
Onyango, 57, celebrated her victory by ordering $8.55 worth of takeout from the L Street Diner, rewarding her deliveryman with a $2 tip.
“She orders from us every week: soup, wings, fries,” the deliveryman said.
When asked to remark on her good fortune, Onyango referred questions to her legal team. Co-counsel Scott Bratton told reporters the asylum process is confidential and Onyango “wants to keep it that way. She doesn’t want people to feel sorry for her.”
Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said yesterday the White House had no involvement in the case at any point in the process. Harold Ort, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to say if federal officials will appeal Shapiro’s decision.
“Absent a waiver-of-consent form, ICE does not comment on individuals or specific cases,” Ort said.
Despite all the denials of any string-pulling by her nephew the president, Aunt Zeituni’s friends in Southie were skeptical.
“She’s got to live somewhere. She’s going to end up staying here one way or another,” Dave Mann said. Asked if he suspected presidential intervention, Mann laughed and said, “I think that might have helped.”
