Obama's Kenyan Aunt Zeituni can stay in the US for ten more months

Boston (United States), Apr.2 (ANI): A US immigration judge has given President Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt ten more months to prepare an argument against her deportation.

The decision came six years after Aunt Zeituni Onyango was first ordered to leave the United States.

"Praise God," said Zeituni Onyango as she stepped out of a closed hearing yesterday morning using a cane and wearing a rust-colored wig.

Her response was to a decision issued by Judge Leonard Shapiro, who twice previously ordered her to be sent back to Kenya, to schedule a full hearing on her asylum request for February 4, 2010, the Washington Post reports.The case of Onyango, who guided Obama around Kenya on a visit 20 years ago, has inflamed activists against illegal immigration and has put her nephew in a difficult position despite his insistence that he will play no role in her case.

Critics say Onyango, 56, has received special treatment because she wasn't deported earlier, twice was granted a reopening of her case and now has another 10 months to stay in the country until her next hearing.

Citing Obama's statements that relevant laws should be applied to Onyango, William Gheen, who heads Americans for Legal Immigration, said, "If the rule of law were applied in this case, Zeituni Onyango should have been deported a long time ago."

Rush Limbaugh criticized Obama's response on the radio recently, saying: "The president said he's going to let the law play out. It is heartless . . . he could buy her an apartment; he could buy her a green card; he's the president." But he added, "If he does that, then he steps on U.S. law."

Onyango is one of more than 13,000 immigrants a year who seek to have their cases reopened, which can occur repeatedly, according to federal immigration officials. (ANI)