“State officials said a 1977 federal consent decree in Massachusetts prohibits them from denying illegal immigrants state-funded public housing.”

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Obama’s aunt turns to relatives in Cleveland
By Maria Sacchetti
Boston Globe Staff / November 8, 2008

Margaret W. Wong, a lawyer in Cleveland, issued a statement saying Zeituni Onyango did not wish to comment further.

The 56-year-old half-sister of Obama’s late father had said she would speak to a reporter after the election, but instead declined to comment and left her apartment in the Boston Housing Authority for Ohio.

“Her wish is for this matter to remain private,” Wong said in a statement. “She is in Cleveland with close family members resting and is under good care.”

An immigration judge denied Onyango’s application for political asylum and ordered her deported four years ago. But since then she has been living in federal and state-funded public housing in Boston.

Immigration lawyers have said Onyango might have several options to stay in this country, even if she were facing a deportation order. She could appeal to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow her to stay while she tries to reopen her asylum case, for instance.

The circumstances of Onyango’s asylum petition have not been released.

Onyango’s immigration status, and her residency in public housing, generated controversy just before the presidential election.

Wong told the Associated Press yesterday that Onyango was upset that news of her immigration status had been leaked to the news media because she believed it was intended to hurt Obama’s candidacy.

But others questioned why she had been allowed to live there.

Illegal immigrants are ineligible for federal housing benefits, and Onyango had lived in federally subsidized housing until she transferred to state-funded housing this year for medical reasons.

State officials said a 1977 federal consent decree in Massachusetts prohibits them from denying illegal immigrants state-funded public housing.

As of yesterday, Onyango was still a tenant in the West Broadway housing project, according to Bill McGonagle, deputy director of the Boston Housing Authority.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has asked its inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate the leak because the overseeing Department of Homeland Security’s policy is to maintain confidentiality of such cases.

Several neighbors, who declined to give their names, described Onyango this week as a slim, tall woman who recently had back surgery and was in the hospital for several weeks. They said she walked with a limp and needed help from neighborhood children to carry in her groceries.

Onyango often dispensed advice to her younger neighbors, such as urging them to lock the front door to prevent strangers from harming their children. They said she never mentioned that she was Obama’s aunt.

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.

Something more frightening would be to have a government that didn’t want to take care of it’s people at all. One that would expect your parents to continue living on hard times and do absolutely nothing to help. And guess what, the government is “us”. We are what help to make up the government and how it works since the legislators are voted in to hear our voice. You may want to write these things to your state Senator instead of a very partisan blogsite.

You’re simply refusing to make a choice between the two.

This year we have lost our house, my mother lost her job and my parents have filed bankruptcy. I always hear my parents talking about how great our health coverage is. My dad works, his company offers affordable health care.

He works something like 12-16 hours a day lately because when my mom went to apply for food assistance the dumb case worker who was supposed to call her for a phone interview/appointment never did and even though my mom called her everyday for like 2 weeks and left messages the lady never called back. So my dad had to start picking up other peoples shifts to make sure my little brother and I didn’t have to keep eating pb&j and R amen noodles. Also, because last years taxes show my mom and dads income as being too high for free or reduced lunches and book rental assistance I know they have that burden too. I go to school with kids who barely speak English and they get free books and free lunches. Not really fair…My college educated mother has resorted to cleaning other people houses to pay for gas and other stuff need by my bro and I and my dad works like 50-60 hours a week to make sure we eat, can pay rent on a teeny tiny house, make the van payment, living expense bills and once in a while he brings home Dairy Queen!

Lifestyle change for me…We used to live in a 4000 sq ft home. I used to be able to dance in a great performing dance company. We used to go on 2 vacations a year. My mom and I used to have girls day 2x a month. My dad used to kiss me good night at 10:00 on the dot on school nights.

I pretty much know we have no wealth to share. Where is it going? I know that America is supposed to be the Land of the Free. Free to do what- Mooch off taxpayers and people who work really hard to succeed?

All I really know is if you have a job, and go to work, you can get health care and you have earned it because you have worked for it.

Or you can NOT work & have like 6 kids out of wedlock by different fathers and then have people like my dad and other hard workers pay for your health coverage, groceries, housing, kids school books, and then use the money that “my dad” worked for so the jacked up gov’t can give you cash assistance to buy your Baby Phat jeans and Gucci purses.

It’s crazy, my mom still cries during the National Anthem, and God Bless the U.S.A. My dad takes his hat off and stands at what he calls “parade rest” during the anthem. They love this country and the waving flag! (Not the ridiculous one that is in the stupid O for Obama!) And yet…I can see their frustrations with where the country is headed.

What am I saying? It is all scaring the kids. When your mom and dad are worried, no matter how they try to hide it, then you worry too. I am so grateful that we go to a church where Jesus is the Savior. Where God is the father, protector, leader, head honcho…
My church honors veterans on Veteran’s Day, supports our troops, provides food for the hungry, counseling and training for young and single mothers, transportation for the elderly….it goes on. We are able to do this because there are people who give to the church because they WANT to not because they are taxed/forced to do so. In the end, how different from the state is the church? I know that is a loaded question so please don’t gang up on me!

When a person’s faith is all they have left, what else can they do? I just hope that by the time I am old enough to vote that there is someone worth voting for. Someone honest, patriotic, not self serving, smart, experienced, just, and who loves and depends on God.

I have never missed a vote (local or Presidential in 48 years. This Presidential election shows we have scraped the bottom of the barrel for candidates for President. Rather that break that streak, I will write in a candidate. McCain is a nut case who wants this country overun with Latinos and Obama is trying to BUY this elections and apparently is succeding. An empty suit with no experience with anything but 3 years in the Senate and being absent one of those years campaigning. If anyone has a good concience about voting for either of the two, go for it! In my humble estimation, both of them if elected will run this country into the ground and make it more of a third world gheto than the previous administration has. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Exactly, Emma. And why did she attend his swearing in….if he hardly knows her? Hardly sound estranged to me. As usual, another lie from the Nobama.

Does anyone have any information on anything related to alternitive energy that McCain has ever proposed?
*****************************************************

On how he voted but not much on proposed:

http://www.rep.org/McCain_enviro_record.html

http://ontheissues.org/John_McCain.htm#Energy_+_Oil

“Migrants may not be offered any service or aid until
they prove they are in Mexico legally. This includes
help from the police.”

Mexico’s harsh treatment of migrants has undermined
demands for better treatment of migrants in the U.S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney

“Some would later ask questions about Romney’s eligibility to run for President due to his birth in Mexico, as the circumstance of his birth and ambiguity in the constitution over the phrase “natural-born citizen.”[5]”

Apparently Romney’s grandparents fled to a polygamous Mormon colony in Mexico because of federal opposition to the practice. And he ran for president. Makes me want to dig up the press and see what was said about his family history and citizenship.

as far as Bill Clinton - I was not mentioning him at all, but now that you brought it up, Hillary should have left him.

Does anyone have any information on anything related to alternitive energy that McCain has ever proposed? As far as I can find out, he has done nothing in all his years in Congress related to alternitive energy.

You might also say that the Obama people themselves are partially to blame for this kind of on-going speculation. When you play continuing games involving non-release of personal documentation such as school records, health records, and even legislative records, you have to anticipate that you will be suspect on a whole lot of personal issues, especially at this political level. The Obama people have generally played a smart tactical game against both Hillary and McCain, but opting for non-release of so much personal information when your candidate has such a “different” history from previous entries in a presidential race is, to my mind, a real bonehead move. That is, unless you really have something to hide. It is no wonder that so many people wonder what exactly would be found in all those unreleased documents. If Obama wins on 4 November and if something really negative is uncovered post-election in some of those documents, an Obama presidency could prove to be a very strange and contentious one…and very unfortunate for this country.

The answer is very simple….one of them is closer to your view of “good” than the other. Vote for Mickey Mouse and that’s likely whom you’ll get.

I doubt that you will EVER find a candidate with whom you agree on every single issue. Come on, is it really THAT difficult? It’s certainly your right to “throw your vote away,” but I disagree with that philosophy.