VIDEO: Obama's Aunt Onyango Lives in Squalor in a South Boston Housing Project. Her and Her Husband were recently evicted from another residence. Can't Obama Spread the Wealth and help out his own family with some of his own money rather than taking ours and redistributing it?
South Boston has had a lot of famous political names over the years: John Joseph Moakley, William M. Bulger, Louise Day Hicks.
Now, Americans can add another one to the neighborhood roster: Zeituni Onyango.
Barack Obama's campaign confirmed yesterday that Onyango, who lives in a brick public housing complex on a side street not far from the headquarters of the Iron Workers, Local 7, is the senator's aunt.
Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman, declined to comment further on the Democratic presidential nominee's relationship with Onyango, who has lived in the complex for five years.
In a neighborhood known for producing generations of legendary Irish-American politicians, news that the town is home to the Kenyan relative of a presidential candidate was a shock.
State Representative Brian P. Wallace, a Democrat who lives a few blocks from Onyango, said he had heard rumors over the summer that Obama had an aunt living in the neighborhood.
"Obama's aunt living in Southie?" he said. "I thought somebody was putting me on."
Yesterday, as word spread that Onyango was Obama's aunt, Wallace was bursting with pride.
"I think it's great to have her," he said. "Maybe her nephew will visit."
Onyango is Obama's paternal aunt, one of several children of the senator's grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama. In his memoir, "Dreams From My Father," Obama refers to Onyango affectionately as Aunt Zeituni and recalls that she was the first person to greet him when he stepped off a plane for the first time in Kenya.
" 'Welcome home,' Zeituni said, kissing me on both cheeks," Obama wrote.
Onyango, who is paid a small stipend for working as a health advocate in her housing complex, has shunned attention. Yesterday morning, she ignored a television camera, saying nothing to several reporters as she walked out of her first-floor apartment, handed a duffle bag to the driver of a taxicab, and was driven off.
For three years, she was a volunteer with Experience Corps, a nonprofit that trains adults over 55 to work with children in public schools, said Mary Gunn, the group's executive director.
In a profile on the Experience Corps website, Onyango is described as a "former computer systems coordinator" who says she wanted to volunteer in the schools because "I felt that I should help the children in my community."
"I love people and enjoy interacting with them," Onyango said. "Also, I was idle, and this was a chance to get involved."
Gunn said Onyango is a wonderful person, but said, "Zeituni wishes for me not to comment, and I want to honor her wish."
During visits to her building Wednesday morning and afternoon, and in a phone conversation Wednesday night, Onyango made clear her desire to stay out of the way of her nephew's campaign. "We'll talk after the election," she said. "Come talk to me after the fifth."
A city housing official who visited Onyango this week found the walls of her apartment adorned with photographs of Obama, including some that appeared to be more than two decades old.
"She's been a model resident," said William McGonagle, deputy director of the Boston Housing Authority. "She did a remarkable job as a resident health advocate."
Federal Election Commission records show that Onyango donated at least five times to her nephew's campaign in July and September. Three of the donations were for $5 each, and two of the donations were for $25. Records compiled by The Huffington Post show she gave a total of $260 to the campaign.
VIDEO TEXT
Okay, first off I am a very honest undecided voter. I have not been convinced by either Obama or McCain. I have been working 24 hours a day of sleepless nights just trying to get my business off the ground. I love this country and just want whats best for my country and I. Now while neither has sold me, I just read an article that worried me. I heard Barack Obama telling the nation on the television spots he bought that He felt the pain of the middle class, single mothers, and small business owners and how he was dedicated to them. It seemed sincere. Now I read an article a while ago and even did a video about his homeless brother in Kenya. At first it annoyed me, but I shrugged it off for the facts. He lives in Kenya and he has only met him twice. I was leaning towards an Obama vote until I read this.
His aunt and uncle, who he wrote about in one of his books lives in Boston. They were recently evicted for a little over 2,000 dollars in bills and are now living in a south boston project. Obama is not rich, he is wealthy. If he preaches spreading the wealth, why in the world cant he help his disabled uncle in Boston who he loves. It seems a little redundant but who really is the reel Barack Obama, I want to know before I vote.
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Obama's Aunt Onyango Lives
Obama's Aunt Onyango Lives in Squalor in a South Boston Housing Project. Can't Obama Spread the Wealth and help out his own family with some of his own money rather than taking ours and redistributing it?
Barack Obama has lived one version of the American dream that has taken him to the steps of the White House. But a few miles from where the Democratic presidential candidate studied at Harvard, his Kenyan aunt and uncle, immigrants living in modest circumstances in Boston, have a contrasting American story.
Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Obama's best-selling memoir "Dreams From My Father," lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.
A second relative believed to be the long-lost "Uncle Omar" described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a "sawed-off rifle" while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom apartment for failing to pay $2,324.20 in bills, according to the Boston Housing Court.
The press has repeatedly rehearsed Obama's extraordinary odyssey, but the other side of the family's American experience has only been revealed in parts. Just across town from where Obama made history as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, some of his closest blood relatives have confronted the harshness of immigrant life in America.
In his book Obama writes that "Uncle Omar" had gone missing after moving to Boston in the 1960s a quarter-century before Obama first visited his family in Kenya. Aunt Zeituni is now also living in Boston, and recently made a $260 campaign contribution to her nephew's presidential bid from a work address in the city.
Speaking outside her home in Flaherty Way, South Boston, on Tuesday, Onyango, 56, confirmed she was the "Auntie Zeituni" in Obama's memoir. She declined to answer most other questions about her relationship with the presidential contender until after the November 4 election.
"I can't talk about it, I just pray for him, that's all," she said, adding: "After the 4th, I can talk to anyone."
Federal Election Commission records show that Onyango donated at least five times to her nephew's campaign in July and September. Three of the donations were for $5 each, and two of the donations were for $25. Records compiled by The Huffington Post show she gave a total of $260 to the campaign.
AP: Obama aunt from Kenya
AP: Obama aunt from Kenya living illegally in US
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVVj5SjAgqpjIbqdmcOB74FtqRIAD94652UO0
WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama's aunt, a 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.
Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUHN on-YANG-oh), referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in Obama's memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango's case.
Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.
Onyango's refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, noncriminal violation of immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Estimates vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the U.S.
The AP could not immediately reach Onyango, 56, for comment. When a reporter went to her home Friday night, no one answered the door. A neighbor said she was often not home on the weekend. Onyango did not immediately return telephone and written messages left at her home. It was unclear why her request for asylum was rejected in 2004.
The Obama campaign declined comment late Friday night.
Onyango is not a relative whom Obama has discussed in campaign appearances and, unlike Obama's father and grandmother, is not someone who has been part of the public discussion about his personal life.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Kelly Nantel, said the government does not comment on an individual's citizenship status or immigration case.
Onyango's case — coming to light just days before the presidential election — led to an unusual nationwide directive within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement requiring that any deportations before Tuesday's election be approved at least at the level of the agency's regional directors, the U.S. law enforcement official told the AP.
The unusual directive suggests that the administration is sensitive to the political implications of Onyango's case coming to light so close to the election.
The East African nation has been fractured in violence in recent years, including a period of two months of bloodshed after December 2007 that killed 1,500 people.
The disclosure about Onyango came just one day after Obama's presidential campaign confirmed to the Times of London that Onyango, who has lived quietly in public housing in South Boston for five years, was Obama's half aunt on his father's side.
It was not immediately clear how Onyango might have qualified for public housing with a standing deportation order.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVVj5SjAgqpjIbqdmcOB74FtqRIAD94652UO0
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