Zeituni Onyango

Early life and family Zeituni Onyango was born in 1952 into the Luo tribe in Kenya, daughter of Onyango Obama and his third wife Sarah Onyango Obama. She was a much younger half-sister to Barack Obama Sr., the son of their father's second wife. Barack Obama Sr. remarried in Kenya and fathered about six children; he died in 1982. Obama's trip to Kenya was to meet and learn more about the many members of the paternal side of his family. Barack Obama Sr. fathered six sons and a daughter in addition to Obama. As of 2010, all but one live in Britain or the United States; Mark Obama Ndesandjo lives in China. After returning to Kenya with a master's degree from Harvard University, Barack Sr. became an economist in the government. He eventually rose to become senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance before political conflict with President Kenyatta destroyed his career. In his memoir Dreams from My Father (1995), Barack Obama wrote about his journey to Kenya, including meeting Onyango, whom he called "Aunti Zeituni". Commercial databases show she received a Social Security card in 2001, indicating she had legal status as an immigrant at that time. She moved into the apartment, run by Massachusetts authorities, after back surgery made walking difficult. William McGonigle, deputy director of the Boston Housing Authority, said, "We have no affirmative responsibility I am aware of to further check on their [applicants'] status after they are initially deemed to be eligible." (A 1977 federal consent decree, resulting from a class action lawsuit in Waltham, prohibits state officials from denying public housing to illegal immigrants).

Beginning in 2003, Onyango lived in a South Boston public housing project, according to Boston Public Housing Authority (BHA) officials. Described as a frail woman who walked with a cane, Onyango had been granted a flat normally set aside for people facing physical hardship. Wong said that Onyango needed to stay for medical care because she could not walk. "I don't mind," she said. "You can take that house. I can be on the streets with homeless people. 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." — Zeituni Onyango, WBZ-TV, September 21, 2010, reported and quoted from the WBZ-TV interview Joan Friedland, a lawyer and immigration policy director at the National Immigration Law Center in Washington, noted that even when an immigration judge makes such a decision, other options exist for an asylum claimant. Kenya had longstanding "ethnic tension between the Luo and Kikuyu"; the Kikuyu are the most populous tribe, accounting for approximately 22% of the country's people.

Some of the tensions between the Luo and the Kikuyu date to the mid-1960s post-independence period, when a bitter falling out between President Jomo Kenyatta (a Kikuyu) and his Vice President Jaramogi Odinga (a Luo) resulted in a "sustained political persecution of the Luo." The Luo are considered one of Kenya's most marginalised groups.

In 2002 the National Rainbow Coalition won political control of Kenya, but the country remained politically unstable. Electoral manipulation was alleged, and it was widely confirmed by international observers in the 2007 elections. The political fallout from the 2007 election resulted in a country-wide economic and humanitarian crisis extending into 2008. Throughout the 2000s, there had been widespread ethnic violence in Kenya and East Africa, including killings, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people by 2008.

Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister and former opposition leader in 2008, is also of the Luo tribe. The son of Jaramogi Odinga, he claims to be a cousin of Barack Obama. In 2008 Odinga served as Prime Minister of Kenya with president Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, in a coalition government.

The American Prospect noted in 2008 that Onyango risked being persecuted and tortured in Kenya if she returned, and said that risk to her family members had increased, whether or not she was deported, because of her asylum case having been leaked and widely publicized internationally. Onyango's case resulted in a special nationwide directive within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requiring any deportations to be approved at the level of ICE regional directors before the U.S presidential election. In discussing Onyango's case, various media outlets discussed some of the issues of immigrants, including political asylum cases.

Putting Onyango's case in perspective, MSNBC's Domenico Montanaro noted at the time that thousands of people live for years in the US after receiving deportation orders. "Fugitive apprehension teams usually target suspects with criminal records before they go after simple immigration violators".

Onyango was granted a waiver of deportation on May 17, 2010, by the United States, and became a legal resident. Immigration Judge Leonard I. Shapiro granted Zeituni Onyango, her lawyers Margaret Wong and Scott Bratton, and her two doctors an extended hearing that lasted five hours. At the end, Shapiro granted her legal residency and permission to work in the United States.

Political donation Onyango donated money to her nephew's 2008 presidential campaign, but these were considered illegal under US law. Foreign citizens or immigrants without green cards may not make political donations. The campaign said they would return her donations, regardless of her status, to avoid any appearance of wrongdoing.

Legality regarding release of information The Washington Post noted federal privacy law restricts the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from disclosing information about citizens and permanent residents, and DHS policy limits disclosures about an immigrant's status. Asylum seekers are granted greater protection from release of information to the public, because of the sensitive nature of their claims and the risks of retaliation.