|
Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
Niue
5334 Posts
|
 Posted?-?01 Nov 2008?:? 18:28:45 ? 
|
Zeituni Onyango has been living in public housing in Boston, AP says
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said he was not aware that he had an Kenyan aunt living illegally in the United States.
The Associated Press news agency says Zeituni Onyango lost a bid for asylum four years ago.
The Obama campaign issued a statement: "Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed."
According to AP, Ms Onyango is the half-sister of Mr Obama's late father.
She has been living in public housing in Boston, it adds.
AP says its information about Ms Onyango, 56, is based on two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official.
Ms Onyango, referred to as "Auntie Zeituni" in Mr Obama's memoir, was instructed to leave America by a US immigration judge who had denied her asylum request, a "person familiar with the matter" told AP late on Friday.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because "no-one was authorised to discuss Onyango's case".
According to AP, Ms Onyango has not been mentioned in the presidential candidate's speeches and "is not someone who has been part of the public discussion about his personal life".
Several meetings
Mr Obama's father grew up in Kenya herding goats but gained a scholarship to study in Hawaii where he met and married Mr Obama's mother, who was living in Honolulu with her parents.
The house where the aunt lived, pictured on Thursday
Barack Obama Senior left his son when he was two years old and lived most of his life in Kenya, where he fathered six other sons and a daughter with three other wives. He died in a car crash in 1982.
The presidential hopeful first met his father's side of the family when he travelled to Africa 20 years ago.
Describing the visit in his memoir, he talks of "Auntie Zeituni" being "a proud woman".
Mr Obama's campaign was quoted by AP as saying he had seen her a few times since that meeting, beginning with a return trip to Kenya with his future wife, Michelle, in 1992.
Ms Onyango visited the family in Chicago on a tourist visa at Mr Obama's invitation about nine years ago, the campaign added, stopping to visit friends on the East Coast before returning to Kenya.
She attended Mr Obama's swearing-in to the US Senate in 2004 but campaign officials say the politician provided no assistance in getting her a tourist visa and does not know the details of her stay.
The campaign added, in its statement quoted by AP, that Mr Obama had last heard from her about two years ago when she called saying she was in Boston but he did not see her there.
Donations returned
The Obama campaign also said it was returning $260 that Ms Onyango had donated in small increments to her nephew's presidential bid.
Only green card-holders and American citizens may vote, under federal election law.
Residing in the US in violation of immigration law is not a criminal offense and such cases are therefore handled outside the criminal court system.
Ms Onyango listed her employer as the the Boston Housing Authority and last gave $5 on 19 September, AP says.
Many experts estimate there are more than 10 million illegal immigrants in the US.
 Posted at 12:16 PM ET on Nov 1, 2008 Updated 1:01 p.m. - By Matthew Mosk
The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama will refund a small number of contributions made by Obama's aunt, who has been living in the United States illegally, according to a published report.
The woman, Zeituni Onyango, lives in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama's late father.
The Associated Press reported today that Obama's aunt had been instructed to leave the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya.
Obama campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Onyango gave $265 to the campaign. Foreign nationals are not permitted to donate to American presidential campaigns.
"Given the information that has been brought to our attention, the contributions are being refunded," Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, told The Washington Post this morning.
The campaign told the AP that Obama was not aware that questions had been raised about his aunt's legal status.
"Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed," the statement said, according to the AP.
The public housing complex in South Boston where Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango reportedly lives is seen Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. The Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Hij is wel een gladjakker... Nu heeft die (overleden) pa wel een uitgebreide familie en is dit een halfzus die hij als kind nooit zag. En niet zoveel tijd voor zijn uitgebreide familie. Maar misschien is het nog waar ook, dat hij er niets van wist. Dat had hij als senator toch zo kunnen regelen? Een baantje en een greencard via een bevriende zakenkennis? Misschien is het daarom misschien nog erger dat hij er niet van wist omdat hij zijn familie ernstig verwaarloosde, dan dat hij het wel zou weten, niets deed en nog liegt ook.
|
|
Klacht indienen
|
|
?
?
?New Topic 
?Topic Locked
