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Zeituni Onyango Asylum Case: Boston Judge Granted Asylum Due To News Leak

DENISE LAVOIE | 08/17/10 05:19 PM | AP

BOSTON — A judge who granted asylum to President Barack Obama's African aunt ruled she deserved to stay in the United States because a federal government official leaked her status to a news organization, making her a potential target for persecution in her native Kenya.

U.S. Immigration Judge Leonard Shapiro blasted the leak by the unnamed official in his 29-page ruling granting asylum to Zeituni Onyango in May. His written decision was released this week through the Freedom of Information Act and first was reported by The Boston Globe.

Shapiro found that a federal government official disclosed Onyango's immigration status and her relationship to Obama to The Associated Press three days before the November 2008 election in which Obama was elected as the first black president.

The AP's story stated that Onyango, the half sister of Obama's late father, had been living illegally in the United States after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years earlier. Information about Onyango's case was disclosed and confirmed by two sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official. Onyango, 58, has been living in public housing in Boston.

Shapiro called the disclosure "a reckless and illegal violation of her right to privacy which has exposed her to great risk," and he criticized the official for using the information for political reasons.

"The disclosure intentionally linked the Respondent's status as an asylum applicant with President Obama's presidential campaign, and the effect was to politicize confidential information about the Respondent which the United States government had no authority to release," Shapiro wrote. "The illegality and political ramifications of this breach were made apparent when, following the breach, President (George W.) Bush swiftly issued a directive requiring federal agents to obtain high-level approval before arresting fugitive immigrants."