by Mark Silva
The Obama administration apparently won't have to reconsider that rule requiring high-level approval before federal immigration agents can arrest fugitives, the one that the Bush administration "quietly imposed... days before the election'' of President Barack Obama, whose aunt has been living illegally in the United States.
The Associated Press, relying on information from Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported this week that the rule enacted the day that news was breaking about Obama's aunt still remained in effect. Nantel now says the directive was lifted at the end of November, weeks after the election. High-level approval is no longer required for such arrests, the AP reports.
The Homeland Security directive was issued "amid concerns that such arrests might generate 'negative media or congressional interest,' according to a document obtained by the AP. It made it "clear that U.S. officials worried about possible election implications of arresting Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's late father, who at the time was living in public housing in Boston,''' the AP reported of the aunt to the president now believed to have taken up residence in Cleveland.
The AP obtained a copy of the directive, "Fugitive Case File Vetting Prior to Arrest," two months after it was requested under the Freedom of Information Act. It does not mention President Obama or any members of his extended family.
IThe directive was first distributed Oct. 31 by e-mail to immigration officers -- hours before the AP first reported on Obama's aunt.
A spokesman for the White House said the president had not been briefed about the rule and the president "has not contacted any government agency regarding Ms. Onyango's case, nor has any representative of the president."
Obama's aunt was instructed to leave the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya. Despite the deportation order, which she is fighting with hopes of remaining in the U.S., Onyango, 56, traveled to Washington last week for her nephew's inauguration. News organizations observed her attending an inaugural ball at Washington's Renaissance Mayflower Hotel with her immigration lawyer, Margaret Wong.
Obama has said he didn't know his aunt was living in the U.S. illeally and believes that laws covering the situation should be followed.
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