The entitlement mentality is strong with this one:

“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.
[...]
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.

I won’t bother to ask how a poverty-stricken person (and an illegal one for that matter) could have possibly been hospitalized and apparently successfully treated pre-Obamacare, back when the poor were left to die in the gutter.

Hope & Change are truly dead. Even a relative of the president and illegal alien who was ultimately granted legal status and lived off the US taxpayer dime the entire time (and continues to) is bitching about “the system.” Auntie Onyango sounds like she’s just a job and an overcomplicated tax return away from joining the Tea Party.

For the record, I agree with Onyango — the system is broken. She wouldn’t agree with me as to why, but it’s a start.

A little history on Auntie Onyango here.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Last week, in my column on our busted deportation system, I mentioned that President Obama’s deportation fugitive aunt was still awaiting the results of her second asylum appeal after nearly a year.

The AP reports that her lawyers are set to announce the decision this afternoon in Cleveland.

Will she finally be kicked out or will this unemployed Obama family member remain here in taxpayer-subsidized housing and other mysteriously-funded means?

I know where I’d place my bets, given that she has benefited from bipartisan open-borders largesse for the past 10 years.

Refresher course: The Deportation Abyss: “It Ain’t Over ‘Til the Alien Wins.”

Stay tuned…

***

CNN reporting that two sources say Onyango has won legal status. Just a formality — given that she has been allowed to stay here for so long in defiance of a federal immigration judge’s deportation order for six years and after overstaying her temporary visa issued in 2000.

Confirmed by AP here.

Immigration enforcement is a joke, Part 999,999,101.

I repeat:“It Ain’t Over ‘Til the Alien Wins.”

***

All previous Zeituni Onyango blog posts here.

Flashback: October 2008, Times of London: Found in a rundown Boston estate: Barack Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango.

She’s still here. She’s still appealing her deportation order. She’s still living in public housing in Boston.

Over and above whatever government subsidies she is receiving, someone else is paying her legal, living, and medical expenses.

Who?

President Obama’s illegal alien aunt chattered away with an Associated Press reporter, but she refused to say who’s paying her way:

President Barack Obama’s aunt buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she described her anguish over no longer having contact with him and his family after the revelation she had been living illegally for years in the United States in public housing.

Zeituni Onyango told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that she is troubled that her immigration woes have made her a political liability to her nephew.

…Onyango helped care for the president’s half brothers and sister while living with Barack Obama Sr. in Kenya. She moved to the United States in 2000 and applied for asylum in 2002, but her request was rejected and she was ordered deported in 2004.

However, she did not leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston. She had been a health care volunteer but not since her status became public. She refused to discuss how she affords to live now or who is paying for her attorney.

Onyango said she previously had no trouble visiting Obama when he was a state senator in Illinois or after he became a U.S. senator, though she declined to discuss details of how often she had contact with Obama and his family. Her tiny apartment in a modest subsidized public housing complex for seniors and the disabled is adorned with photographs of her with Obama at the Illinois Statehouse, the president’s official portrait, his family, the inauguration, her children and African wildlife.

She is disabled and learning to walk again after being paralyzed for more than three months because of an autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Last fall, I reported exclusively on the cease-and-desist order that the Bush administration imposed on ICE agents to stop them from picking up Onyango before Election Day. Flashback:

According to my sources, the Bush administration issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his Kenyan half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango. The Associated Press had reported on Nov. 1 that Onyango was a deportation evader – one of an estimated 700,000 illegal alien absconders who have ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country. The wire report mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security distributed “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.”

But the politicized order was even worse than the AP reported. The deportation process wasn’t simply slowed down for public relations reasons and fear of a media backlash. The process was completely frozen.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement source familiar with Western field offices told me: “The ICE fugitive operations group throughout the U.S. was told to stand down until after the election from arresting or transporting anyone out of the U.S. This was done to avoid any mistakes of deporting or arresting anyone who could have a connection to the election, i.e., anyone from Kenya who could be a relative. The decision was election-driven.”

Another source close to ICE operations in a southern California field office confirmed that immigration officials there received the same directive: “The reason they included all offices in the US was to show that they were not targeting the district Office where Aunti lived. They don’t want to pick her up by mistake and cause a big problem.”

In other words, the Bush Department of Homeland Security determined that protecting Barack Obama from the negative publicity surrounding a potential arrest of his illegal alien aunt was more important to the general welfare of the country than tracking down untold numbers of deportation absconders who received an extra three-day pass last week. DHS refuses to comment publicly about the case.

Well, Onyango is now talking about the order — and she has nothing but praise for Bush’s dangerous open-borders policy in his lame-duck days:

Onyango reserved special words of kindness for former President George W. Bush for a directive he put in place days before the election requiring federal agents get high-level approval to arrest fugitive immigrants, which directly affected Onyango. The directive made clear that U.S. officials worried about possible election implications of arresting Onyango.

She said she wants to thank Bush in person for the order, which gave her a measure of peace but was lifted weeks later.

“I loved President Bush,” Onyango said while moving toward a framed photo of Bush and his wife standing with Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House on inauguration day. “He is my No. 1 man in my life because he helped me when I really needed that help.”

Unfortunately, we’ll never know many criminal illegal aliens benefited from the Onyango protection order that put political considerations over immigration enforcement.

The curse of open-borders bipartisanship won’t be lifted any time soon.

The Boston Herald has a very informative piece today on Obama’s illegal alien aunti, Zeituni Onyango.

You’ll be happy to know she’s back in taxpayer-subsidized public housing. Make sure you go to the Herald site to see her kicking back in pearls.

Also:

“Boston is my second home,” she said. “(South Boston) is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever lived in. People are very kind, and I’m enjoying the beaches.”

Only in America…

Yes, this is a teachable moment. When does Auntie Zeituni get invited for a White House beer summit?

Anyone familiar with the deportation abyss, which I’ve reported on for years, will not be surprised by the immigration court ruling in Obama’s illegal alien/fugitive aunt Zeituni Onyango’s case today. She’s getting yet another reprieve after defying judicial orders to leave the country.

Only in America, my friends:

Zeituni Onyango, the Kenyan aunt of President Obama, emerged this morning after a brief, closed-door hearing in US Immigration Court and smiled broadly.

“Praise God,” Onyango said softly, holding her head high as she was surrounded by a throng of men in suits.

Judge Leonard I. Shapiro continued Onyango’s case until Feb. 4, 2010, which allowed her to stay in the United States until at least that date, according to Fatimah Mateen, a spokesperson for the court. At the initial appearance, the judge explained the deportation charges against Onyango and detailed her rights. Mateen briefed reporters in the lobby of the courtroom, standing beneath a framed photograph of Onyango’s nephew, President Obama.

“Ms. Onyango case is being treated just like any other case before an immigration judge,” Mateen said.

Alas, there is much truth in this.

Auntie Zeituni is waiting for shamnesty:

Onyango plans to apply for permanent residency in the United States, according to Mike Rogers, a spokesman for Onyango’s lawyers. While the lawyers’ legal strategy remains unclear, Rogers said he was instructed not to use the word asylum.

“The decision as to Ms. Onyango’s request to stay permanently in the United States will be made during a second hearing,” Rogers said.

A security detail hurried her past photographers and a throng of reporters, whisking her in and out of the court without using the public entrances to federal building next to City Hall. Onyango wore a curly, rust-colored wig in what may have been an effort to hide from the media and walked with a cane, a consequence of back problems.

The hearing, which was closed at Onyango’s request, lasted less than 15 minutes and took place in a small, boxy courtroom with a red rug and nine benches. The third-floor room overlooks City Hall Plaza, where a white circus tent was visible below.

Lawyers for Onyango said yesterday that they planned to present new evidence seeking to reverse a 2004 deportation order and allow her to stay in the United States. The lawyers would not discuss their strategy, such as whether they would focus on her numerous health problems, political unrest in Kenya, or another issue.The former computer programmer, whom the president called Auntie Zeituni in one of his books, is battling a neurological condition in addition to her back problems.

The half-sister of Obama’s late father had applied for asylum in the past but lost. Since then, she has been living illegally in the United States, most recently in a South Boston public housing development.

Where in the world is Barack Obama’s illegal alien aunt, Zeituni Onyango? When last we saw the destitute relative, she was partying on Inauguration Day despite her fugitive status. The deportation evader is set to have yet another day in immigration court. She’s back at her Boston public housing complex, courtesy of the American taxpayer, preparing for the case. The Boston Globe reports:

President Barack Obama’s aunt, a Kenyan immigrant who ignited controversy last year for living in the United States illegally, has returned to her quiet apartment in a Boston public housing project to prepare for an April 1 deportation hearing that will be closed to the public…

…”The case is unusual in American history because it’s a relative of the president involved in immigration matters,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. “It really does present the White House with an opportunity or a minefield. If they follow through on a decision that she should go home, that would actually raise the president’s credibility enormously on immigration enforcement.”

Obama has said that he has not had any involvement in the case and that it should run its ordinary course, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

Onyango’s fate will play out behind closed doors before Judge Leonard Shapiro in Boston. Onyango’s lawyer, Margaret Wong of Ohio, successfully argued to reopen her case in December and have the proceedings closed to the public, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts.

Onyango declined two requests for interviews in recent days, and told a reporter to stop wasting her time.

“I’m not happy,” Onyango said, bundled up in a parka against the spring chill as she went to pick up her mail.

Wong has not responded to repeated requests for comment. But her spokesman told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in January that Onyango would present new evidence to back an asylum claim. Onyango has lost several attempts to fight deportation, said immigration court spokeswoman Elaine Komis. In 2003, a judge ordered her to leave the country, and she lost on appeal. She tried again, but an immigration judge ordered her deported in October 2004. Komis would not confirm whether Onyango had sought asylum before now because, she said, asylum cases are confidential.

Shapiro, an immigration judge since 1990, rejected 68 percent of asylum requests from 2002 to 2007, higher than the state and national averages, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Asylum seekers must show that they fear persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.

Still, immigration lawyers said she has a chance because she managed to get a hearing.

Asylum fraud is rampant in the deportation system. With help from the Bush administration, Onyango has managed to escape accountability for her prolonged defiance of the law. Her case points up the interminable ways in which deportation fugitives manage to buy time after receiving orders to leave — and create new bites at the judicial apple. If she loses her case, she can appeal directly to Congress for a special relief bill.

You can beef up security on the border, but if a dysfunctional deportation abyss remains in place and if DHS refuses to enforce immigration laws on the interior, it’s more time and money down the drain.

Well, isn’t this special? After overstaying her visa, ignoring a federal deportation order for years, escaping apprehension in Boston, and taking refuge in Cleveland, the destitute illegal alien aunt of Barack Obama somehow found her way to Washington, D.C., for her nephew’s inauguration.

Federal immigration officials couldn’t find her, but she was spotted by several media outlets and partygoers around the Beltway.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported:

Ohio Democrats put aside the state’s financial troubles and cold weather Sunday night to celebrate its part in electing Barack Obama to the White House.

Just a few blocks from Obama’s soon-to-be residence, elected officials, former officeholders, proud volunteers and party activists from the Buckeye State noshed and drank at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, a historic luxury hotel…

… One special guest who commanded attention at the party was Zeituni Onyango, 56, Obama’s aunt from Kenya who has been in this country illegally and is getting help in her immigration fight from another ball guest, Cleveland attorney Margaret Wong.

About 900 people, who each paid $300, attended the ball, which was put on by a special committee set up for the event.

It sold corporate sponsorships — ranging from $10,000 to $75,000 — to help underwrite the cost of the ball and related activities. Among the sponsors were Duke Energy, Nationwide, the Ohio Education Association and Penn National Gaming.

The NYTimes, which doesn’t seem to have caught up to the news that Onyango ditched her Boston public housing for sanctuary in Ohio, added:

On Monday, some of Mr. Obama’s Kenyan relatives milled around the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel here, their colorful headscarves earning them more curious glances than even the sports and pop music stars in the room. Zeituni Onyango, the president’s aunt, explained that their family had always been able to absorb newcomers.

Pointing out that her male relatives used to take on multiple wives, she said, “My daddy said anyone coming into my family is my family.” (Ms. Onyango, who lives in Boston, recently faced deportation charges, but those orders have been stayed and she is pursuing a green card.)

Michelle Obama’s brother is quoted in the very next paragraph:

At holidays and celebrations, “you get a whole lot of people who are happy to be around family,” Craig Robinson said.

Guess Aunti has been rescued from under the bus — giving Hope to deportation fugitives across the country that Obama will look the other way at their cases, too.

***

Previous Zeituni Onyango blogging.

My syndicated column today reports the rest of the deportation fugitive Aunti Zeituni Onyango story that both Barack Obama and George Bush would prefer to keep covered up. God save us from bipartisanship.

***

Obama’s illegal alien auntie: The rest of the story
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008

I hope Barack Obama remembered to thank George Bush on behalf of his illegal alien aunt this week. The lame-duck Republican president did the Democratic president-elect a generous — and dangerous — favor right before Election Day: Putting politics above homeland security, the Bush administration ordered immigration authorities across the country to halt all deportation enforcement actions until after the campaign season was over.

According to my sources, the Bush administration issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his Kenyan half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango. The Associated Press had reported on Nov. 1 that Onyango was a deportation evader – one of an estimated 700,000 illegal alien absconders who have ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country. The wire report mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security distributed “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.”

But the politicized order was even worse than the AP reported. The deportation process wasn’t simply slowed down for public relations reasons and fear of a media backlash. The process was completely frozen.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement source familiar with Western field offices told me: “The ICE fugitive operations group throughout the U.S. was told to stand down until after the election from arresting or transporting anyone out of the U.S. This was done to avoid any mistakes of deporting or arresting anyone who could have a connection to the election, i.e., anyone from Kenya who could be a relative. The decision was election-driven.”

Another source close to ICE operations in a southern California field office confirmed that immigration officials there received the same directive: “The reason they included all offices in the US was to show that they were not targeting the district Office where Aunti lived. They don’t want to pick her up by mistake and cause a big problem.”

In other words, the Bush Department of Homeland Security determined that protecting Barack Obama from the negative publicity surrounding a potential arrest of his illegal alien aunt was more important to the general welfare of the country than tracking down untold numbers of deportation absconders who received an extra three-day pass last week. DHS refuses to comment publicly about the case. Warped homeland security priorities are bipartisan. Democrat Rep. John Conyers has called for an immediate investigation – not into the rank politicizing of our deportation policies, but into who leaked Onyango’s deportation fugitive status to the press.

Question: Why shouldn’t this information be public?

As for President-elect Obama, his true views about ICE are well-known. Despite telling Katie Couric that his aunt should be required to follow the law because “We’re a nation of laws…I’m a strong believer you have to obey the law,” Obama scolded ICE agents who do their jobs for “terrorizing” communities.

Onyango arrived in the U.S. in 2000 on a temporary visa. Her asylum request was rejected in 2004. She defied the immigration court order to go back to Kenya, moved into Boston public housing, and is now hiding with relatives in Cleveland while contemplating how to extend her illegal stay.

Question: Will an Obama White House reinstate the deportation enforcement freeze in Ohio? Wouldn’t want to “terrorize” the community.

(Meanwhile, real terrorists have benefited enormously from lax enforcement of deportation orders and asylum loopholes. Ramzi Yousef, Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, and Mir Aimal Kansi all exploited our catch-and-release system by invoking asylum and evading swamped authorities before plotting and executing jihadist attacks.)

Onyango’s options, like those of hundreds of thousands of deportation fugitives like her, are wide open. With the help of a seasoned immigration lawyer, she can take another bite at the judicial apple and appeal her deportation order. She can take her case all the way to the Supreme Court. She can find an illegal alien sanctuary church to give her refuge. Or she can take advantage of the longstanding congressional practice of creating “special relief” bills to help individual deportation fugitives escape punishment and acquire U.S. citizenship.

The post-9/11 Bush homeland security equation looks pretty much like the pre-9/11 one – one that will continue under Barack Obama: Cowardice plus rank opportunism times political correctness equals a lasting recipe for immigration chaos.

***

Update: Right on cue…

Dozens of immigrant advocates from across the country convened in Washington yesterday to call on President-elect Barack Obama to halt work-site immigration raids and fulfill campaign pledges to offer the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States a path to citizenship within his first year in office…

…Representatives of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a coalition of grass-roots organizations from Los Angeles, New York and the Washington area, also announced plans to mobilize tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters for a demonstration on the Mall on Jan. 21, the day after Obama’s inauguration.

“We voted in the millions, and now we’re going to demand progress in the millions,” said Angelica Salas, director of one of the allied organizations, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, at a news conference to publicize the movement’s efforts.