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Immigration and Customs Enforcement told not to arrest Zeituni Onyango

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January 26, 4:22 PM

by John Zorabedian, Boston Top News Examiner

President Barack Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's late Kenyan father, remains in the United States despite a judge's refusal to grant her asylum in 2004, and attended an inaugural ball in Washington, DC the night Obama was officially sworn in, the Associated Press reported today. An unusual directive from the US immigration agency may have been put in place to prevent her arrest just before the presidential election on November 4, 2008.

Just days before the election, word leaked out to the news media that Onyango was living in public housing in Boston despite an order for her deportation in 2004. Onyango has since left Boston and is fighting her deportation, according to the AP. News organizations observed her attending an inaugural ball at Washington's Renaissance Mayflower Hotel with her immigration lawyer, Margaret Wong.

The directive from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which was obtained last week by the AP in a Freedom of Information Act request, was e-mailed to ICE agents on Oct. 31 and expressed concerns about "negative media or congressional interest" and ordered ICE agents to seek approval before making arrests. Now a spokeswoman for the ICE, Kelly Nantel, has told the AP that the directive was reversed weeks after the election. From the AP:

The directive was lifted at the end of November, after Obama's win, ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said Monday. Nantel previously had told the AP the directive was still in place, and the White House told the AP late Sunday that Obama would consider whether to overturn it. Nantel said she had been under the impression the directive was still in effect.

Nantel also told the AP that the directive was intended for any high-profile cases, and was not specific to Obama's family. The Obama administration commented that the president "has not contacted any government agency regarding Ms. Onyango's case, nor has any representative of the president."

However, the timing of the directive and its subsequent reversal raises the question of whether it was issued to prevent Onyango's arrest in order to protect the agency from the appearance of interfering with the election.

What do you think? Please comment below.

Topics: Barack Obama , Zeituni Onyango , ICE , Margaret Wong , Kelly Nantel ,immigration , Immigration and Customs Enforcement

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