June 14, 2010 3:11 PM Rep. Steve King, Raising Questions of Favoritism, Calls for Obama's Aunt to Testify About Being Granted Asylum Posted by Brian Montopoli
President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, on Nov. 24, 2009. (Credit: AP) Congressman Steve King, an Iowa Republican, today requested that President Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, testify before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law in order to address "the public perception that favoritism played a role in the grant of asylum to Ms. Onyango."
In a letter to the chair of the subcommittee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, King writes that "[i]n order to better determine whether favoritism played a role - especially because Ms. Onyango had been earlier turned down for asylum and ordered deported in 2004 before her nephew became president - the Subcommittee needs to hear from Ms. Onyango herself."
"While I understand that asylum proceedings are generally confidential, Margaret Wong, Ms. Onyango's attorney, has clearly courted press attention regarding this matter," he continues. "In fact, I assume that the press learned that Ms. Onyango received asylum because of comments to the media made by Ms. Wong. Therefore, Ms. Onyango has made herself a public figure and should have no hesitation about appearing before the Subcommittee. Further, in order to facilitate Ms. Onyango's appearance before the Subcommittee, I request that you and Chairman Conyers authorize the Committee to reimburse her travel expenses."
Onyango was granted asylum last month; the half-sister of Mr. Obama's late father, she moved from Kenya to the United States in 2000.
Her 2002 application for asylum, which was tied to violence in Kenya, was rejected two years after she filed it. Despite that result, Onyango continued living in public housing in Boston.
When it was reported in 2008 that Onyango was possibly in the country illegally, Mr. Obama said he had no knowledge of her status. She testified on her own behalf in U.S. Immigration Court in Boston before being granted asylum this year.
"If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen." Those are the words from 58-year-old Zeituni Onyango of Kenya in a recent exclusive interview with WBZ-TV.
Onyango is the aunt of President Barack Obama. She has been living in the United States illegally for years, receiving public assistance in Boston.
Aunt Zeituni, as she has come to be known, first surfaced in the public light in 2008, in the final days of the Presidential election. Then-candidate Obama said that he was not against the possible deportation of his aunt. "If she has violated laws, then those laws have to be obeyed," he told CBS's Katie Couric. "We are a nation of laws."
Onyango had violated the law, and she knew it.
"I knew I had overstayed" she told WBZ-TV's Jonathan Elias when the two sat down one-on-one.
Zeituni Onyango said she came to the United States in 2000 and had every intention of leaving. Then, however, she says she got deathly ill and was hospitalized. When she recovered, she said she was broke and couldn't afford to leave.
For two years Onyango said she lived in a homeless shelter, before she was moved into public housing. "I didn't take advantage of the system. The system took advantage of me."
"I didn't ask for it; they gave it to me. Ask your system. I didn't create it or vote for it. Go and ask your system," she said unapologetically.
And she's right. The system provided her assistance despite her status as an illegal immigrant.
In 2004 a judge ordered Zeituni Onyango out of the country, but she never left. She stayed, hiding in plain site. In 2005 she attended her nephew's swearing in as the junior Senator of Illinois. In 2008 she traveled to D.C. for President Obama's inauguration.
Onyango hired a top immigration lawyer from Cleveland to help fight her case. We asked how she afforded that lawyer, when she claimed poverty.
"When you believe in Jesus Christ and almighty God, my help comes from heaven," she responded.
When asked about cutting in line ahead of those who have paid into the system she answered plainly, "I don't mind. You can take that house. I will be on the street with the homeless."
In May 2010, Onyango's case went back before the same judge who ordered her out of the country in 2004. This time she was granted asylum in the United States. The ruling said a return to Kenya might put Onyango in danger.
So she is now here legally, still living on public assistance and hoping that the spotlight on her will dim.
Watch Jonathan Elias's exclusive interview with Zeituni Onyango on Monday and Tuesday nights at 11 p.m., on WBZ-TV.
WOW....dontcha just hate it when you have relatives you wish would just 'go away'??
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
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