Category: Asylum seekers

Obama’s Aunt Zeituni back in court tomorrow, President staying out of it (he says)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update April 1st:   Auntie gets to stay until 2010 when another hearing is scheduled, here.   Just kick that can down the road some more.

President Obama’s Auntie Zeituni is back in immigration court tomorrow in Boston according to a report from the Associated Press today.   Readers will recall that Obama was supposedly surprised just before election day last fall to discover his Kenyan aunt,  Zeituni Onyanga, who had been ordered deported years ago, was still in the US illegally.   You can read all of our previous posts on Onyanga here.

BOSTON (AP) – Barack Obama’s Kenyan aunt lost her bid for asylum more than four years ago, and a judge ordered her deported. Instead, Zeituni Onyango stayed, living for years in public housing.

Now, in a case that puts the president in a tough position both personally and politically, Onyango’s request is being reconsidered under a little-used provision in U.S. immigration rules that allows denied asylum claims to be reheard if applicants can show that something has changed to make them eligible.

Such as the ascension of her nephew to the presidency of the world’s most powerful country.

“If she goes back to Kenya, she is going to be much more in the limelight, and that, in and of itself, could put her at a greater risk. The chances of her going back and keeping a low profile are gone at this point,” said Boston immigration attorney Ilana Greenstein.

Onyango, 56, the half-sister of Obama’s late father, moved to the United States in 2000. Her first bid for asylum was rejected, and an immigration judge ordered her deported in 2004; she continues to live in public housing in Boston.

In December, a judge agreed to suspend the deportation order and reopen her case. An initial hearing is scheduled Wednesday in U.S. Immigration Court in Boston.

Obama acts like he had no idea how Onyanga got into the US the most recent time, however, she attended his swearing in as a US Senator in late 2004 (or January 2005, whenever it was), and according to the AP at that point in time she had already been ordered deported.  Do any of  you believe she never told her nephew about problems with her immigration status?  So, what did Obama know and when did he know it?

What does asylum mean? *

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.

We admit a staggering number of asylees each year, over 81,000 in 2007, but rarely from Kenya considered a relatively stable country.

Over the past decade, relatively few Kenyans have sought asylum in the United States: 223 in fiscal year 2007 – compared with 7,934 asylum requests from China and 10,522 from El Salvador – and only 50 Kenyans that year were granted asylum. From 1998 through 2007, about 20 percent of Kenyans who applied were granted asylum, according to an Associated Press review of immigration records.

Onyanga’s attorney is not talking about her grounds for an appeal of the earlier decision, but Onyanga’s tribe, the Luo, happen to not be in power at the moment.  (See one of the many articles about Obama’s complicated family tree, here, with suggestions that one of them will be taken for blackmail.)  I guess that is one of the many issues never discussed by the mainstream media in the Presidential election campaign last fall —- what happens when we have a President with far-flung  foreign family members? 

Onyango’s reasons for seeking asylum have not been made public, and her immigration hearing will be closed at her lawyer’s request.

Kenya has been fractured by violence in recent years. In 2008, more than 1,000 people were killed in the East African nation following a disputed presidential poll, which saw a Luo candidate, Raila Odinga, declared loser to President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, the largest tribe in Kenya.

Obama is between a rock and a hard place.  If he hangs Auntie out to dry, the open borders crowd will pounce.  If he shows any favoritism the rest of us will be steamed, but since we obviously don’t count, what do you think might be going on behind the scenes?

Onyango has not responded to requests for interviews. Her case is being closely watched by people on all sides of the immigration debate. Some critics say her status has already damaged the president’s credibility on immigration issues.

“The president’s moral authority has been compromised by his aunt’s situation,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “Americans have the right to expect aliens to respect our law, to leave when they are supposed to and not thumb their nose at the legal system.”

Yes, Mr. Stein, we expect it, but I wouldn’t count on it.

 

  • In Europe a debate is raging about changing the definition of asylum and allowing anyone coming from any trouble spot in the world to seek asylum without proving they themselves are personally in danger.   From the Wall Street Journal:

BRUSSELS — Refugees seeking asylum in the European Union don’t have to demonstrate that they are specifically targeted for harm if there is widespread and indiscriminate violence in their home countries, Europe’s highest court ruled after reviewing the case of two Iraqi nationals who had fled the war in their country.

The case could lead Europe to admit more asylum-seekers — a touchy subject on a continent that prides itself on broad human-rights protection but often struggles to integrate immigrants and is wrestling with growing unemployment.

Obama is likely to release Gitmo prisoners into US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Not all of them, but at least a batch of 20 men(up from17) is being considered for release.  We just can’t drop them on the streets.  No, of course not, probably as we speak one of the top ten volags (federal refugee contractors) is busy finding them a home.   But, where?     Hat tip:  Blulitspecial.

President Barack Obama’s intelligence chief confirmed Thursday that some Guantanamo inmates may be released on US soil and receive assistance to return to society.

“If we are to release them in the United States, we need some sort of assistance for them to start a new life,” said National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair at his first press conference.

“You can’t just put them on the street,” he added. “All that is work in progress.”

For our previous posts on Guantanamo Bay go here.

UN Report: Asylum seekers increase, but overall number still only half of what it was in 2001

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This news account in the International Herald Tribune of a report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reminded me that we don’t write often enough about asylum.   Asylees are people who claim persecution of some sort (political, religious, etc) but have usually already arrived on a country’s doorstep.  Simply being an economic migrant doesn’t count.

Once granted asylum, at least in the US, the person is given the same perks that a refugee receives—a caseworker, food stamps, cash help, job counseling and so forth.

The UNHCR says the number of asylum seekers worldwide has risen in the last year, but is still only half of what it was in 2001.

PARIS: Turmoil in Afghanistan and Somalia swelled the ranks of asylum-seekers last year, driving refugee numbers higher for a second consecutive year after they dropped to a two-decade low in 2006, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday.

Iraqis remained the single largest population of people seeking protection in industrialized countries, but their numbers fell 10 percent in 2008 from the previous year, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

Overall, the United States remained the chief destination for refugees from all countries, receiving 13 percent of total applications.

In all, about 383,000 people made new asylum requests in 51 countries in 2008, according to the U.N. agency. That was 12 percent more than the 341,000 who sought protection the previous year, and more than the 307,000 who sought assistance in 2006, when numbers fell to a 20-year low.

Still, the 2008 figures were well below level of 2001, when 623,000 people lodged new asylum claims, the U.N. agency said in a report on asylum trends in industrialized countries in 2008.

You can get the full report here.  See also the 2007 Yearbook of Immigrant Statistics for more fun with numbers, here.     We actually have more asylees entering the US than refugees and those asylees had the where-with-all to get here and are not screened in advance by Homeland Security as are refugees.

And for those who think Sweden is so kind, so diverse, so humane, so much better than the US, take note.  Looks like they may be full-up.

Sweden tightened its rules last year, resulting in a drop of two-thirds in the number of Iraqis who requested protection there.

See “Muslim immigration killing Sweden” here.

Maryland Immigration lawyer found guilty of fraud

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is always so much to write about and so little time.   This story is over a week old, but better late then  never. 

We told you some time ago that there was a whole industry developing around the Asylum business.   Asylees basically either got into the US illegally or present themselves at some port of entry as an asylee.  An asylee is someone who is afraid if he or she returns to their home country they will in some way be persecuted and in danger.   If granted asylum, the immigrant can avail himself of all the perks and privileges of the refugee program.

Last year Patrick Tzeuton was indicted for falsifying documents of clients who sought asylum and earlier this month he was convicted.   Tzeuton himself is from Africa and most of his clients were as well.   From the Washington Post:

A Silver Spring lawyer was convicted in federal court yesterday on charges of fabricating asylum applications for immigrants trying to stay in the United States.

Patrick G. Tzeuton, 42, who is from Cameroon and worked with many people from West Africa, signed off on clients’ fraudulent paperwork and coached them to lie during interviews with immigration lawyers, prosecutors said.

During a four-week trial in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, prosecutors alleged that Tzeuton carried out the scheme from 2002 to 2005.

Tzeuton was taken into custody after the jury’s verdict and is scheduled to be sentenced April 29 by Judge Peter J. Messitte. Tzeuton faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy, 10 years for immigration fraud and 20 years for obstruction of official proceedings.

More information on how Tzeuton perpetrated the fraud is here, at a Dept. of Justice press release at the time of his indictment.

Defendants Allegedly Coached Aliens to Tell False Stories of Fear of Persecution

Tzeuton operated a law firm known as the Law Offices of Patrick Tzeuton & Associates (the “Tzeuton Law Firm”) located at 8121 Georgia Avenue, Suite 102 in Silver Spring and 8401 Colesville Road also in Silver Spring, which employed Henri Nzone as a legal assistant. Tzeuton represented hundreds of clients as an attorney in immigration matters before U.S. immigration officials.

According to the 15 count indictment, from May 2002 to at least October 2005, Tzeuton and Nzone prepared false asylum applications, together with false and fraudulent supporting affidavits and documents, and presented them to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). The asylum applications contained false statements regarding (1) the alleged basis for the alien’s fear of future persecution in his or her home country; (2) the date and circumstances of the alien’s entries into the United States; and (3) the alien’s marital status, spouse, and children. In addition, Nzone translated and notarized false and fraudulent letters purporting to be from the alien’s relatives and other witnesses; and included false and fraudulent documents bearing forged notary stamps and signatures.

Ironically Tzeuton is quoted in a Washington Post story from 2005 saying he welcomed more scrutiny of the growing Immigration Consultant business.

Now, here is one of the questions I have, what happens to all those asylees Tzeuton coached to lie and were then granted the right to stay in the United States.   Do they get prosecuted for immigration fraud or do they just get to stay?

And, here is the other question.  How many Patrick Tzeutons are out there?  We granted asylum to 81,183 asylees in 2007 alone.  How many of those were legitimate?

Incredible News! The British have Somali terrorists returning to the UK

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s been happening in Great Britain too!  Somalis, former asylees, have gone to Somalia for terrorist training and British intelligence thinks they are now returning to the UK.  Regular readers of RRW know that we have been on the story of American Somalis leaving for Africa since the story first broke in the media in November (here).  The great fear among our intelligence people is that they will in fact return to the US with their newfound skills.

Britain also has its first suicide bomber as do we, both thought to be members of al Shabab (we are coming to get you).   Hat tip to an annonymous commenter.

From the Times today:

Dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia, the British security services believe.

Intelligence analysts are worried that they may attempt to launch attacks in this country or use the kudos from having trained and fought in Somalia to try to attract new recruits. The issue was raised by Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, in his first interview last month.

In the US, the outgoing head of the CIA, Michael Hayden, has said that Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in late 2006 “catalysed” expatriate Somalis around the world.

An investigation for Channel 4 News, to be broadcast tonight, also reveals that a suicide bomber who grew up in Ealing is thought to have blown himself up in an attack in Somalia that killed more than 20 soldiers.

Tiny UK has 250,000 Somalis!  I don’t know exactly what our Somali population is but the State Department resettled 80,000 over 25 years, so factor in huge families and our numbers must be greater.

The incident (suicide bombing) is the first reported case involving a Somali based in Britain and will add to pressure on Scotland Yard and the Home Office to tackle the problem within the Somali community, which, at about 250,000 people, is the biggest in Europe.

They don’t know exactly how many are leaving 50, 60, 70?   At one point we had a report that 40 have left the US, but now our intelligence people are saying 20, but in reality, they don’t know.

Peter Neumann, a terrorism expert who runs the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, told Channel 4 News: “The numbers I hear [going from Britain to Somalia] are 50, 60 or 70, but in reality we don’t know. You don’t need big numbers for terrorism. Somalia will never become another Pakistan, but that does not mean it is not a threat.”

Most Somalis in Britain entered the country as asylum-seekers within the past 20 years. They include Yasin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed, two of the four men convicted of the botched bombing of the London Underground on July 21, 2005.

Read the rest of the article and learn more about Britain’s first homegrown Somali suicide bomber.