CLEVELAND — A U.S. immigration court has granted asylum to President Barack Obama’s African aunt, allowing her to stay in the country and setting her on the road to citizenship after years of legal wrangling, her attorneys said Monday.
People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.
The basis for Kenya native Zeituni Onyango’s asylum request was never made public, but her lawyer Margaret Wong said last year that Onyango first applied for asylum “due to violence in Kenya.” The East African nation is fractured by cycles of electoral violence every five years.
Medical issues also could have played a role. In a November, Onyango — the half-sister of Obama’s late father — said she was disabled and was learning to walk again after being paralyzed from Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder.
At her asylum hearing in Boston earlier this year, two doctors testified in support of her case.
Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said Monday that the White House had no involvement in the case at any point in the process.
Onyango will now apply for a work permit, which would provide some documentation that she is permitted to stay in the country and allow her to travel again, Wong said. A year from now, she will be eligible to apply for a green card, which is given to people who are granted legal permanent residency in the U.S., Wong said. Five years after receving her green card, she can apply to become a U.S. citizen.
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