Judge Rules Obama's Aunt Can Stay in U.S. May 17, 2010
President Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt can stay in the United States, a U.S. immigration judge has ruled, ending a more than six-year legal battle over her status.
Judge Leonard Shapiro made the decision Friday, court officials told CNN. Two government sources confirmed Monday that the ruling will give legal status to Zeituni Onyango, allowing her to remain in the country.
Onyango's attorneys plan to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. in Ohio.
Onyango, who is the half-sister of the president's late father, applied for political asylum in 2002 due to violence in her native Kenya. She was a legal resident of the United States at the time and had received a Social Security card a year earlier.
Onyango's asylum request was turned down in 2004, and she has been living in the United States illegally since then. She appealed the rejection of her request twice, but was denied each time and ordered to leave the country.
White House officials said during the appeals that Obama was staying out of the matter.
"The president believes that the case should run its ordinary course," the officials said.
