Obama's Aunt an Illegal Immigrant: Guilt-by-association and abuse of power

This is the kind of story that gets a visceral reaction.  Obama's aunt is in the US illegally four years after a judge turned down her asylum request.   It took me 15  years and thousands of dollars to become a US citizen, doing it the legal way.  Yet, this illegal immigrant is living in public housing in Boston?  I'm outraged.

If I hadn't already early voted yesterday, I think, I may have to sit the presidential election out. If  McCain wasn't erratic and the McCain-Palin ticket hadn't run such a bigoted campaign, I think, I might even have voted for them.

But of course, visceral reaction is all that this story has going for it.

African families are sprawling.  This woman is Obama's father's half-sister -- close enough to be mentioned in a memoir, but hardly close.  If Obama had sponsored her immigration, it is one thing. But how else can he responsible for what a distant relative does?  Last month, the story was that his half-brother was living in a slum in Kenya.  That story is irrelevant to the election (do you send monthly checks to all your poor relations?), as is this story.  The whole point of leaking a story like these three days before an election is to suppress voter turnout.

Immigration records are, of course, under federal government purview.  Why would this story come out three days before an election?  Remember: Sarah Palin abused her government position to try to get her brother-in-law fired.  Now, the Bush administration is abusing its power to release irrelevant, guilt-by-association information in an attempt to help McCain.

Vote Obama, if you already haven't.  Abuse of power like this has to stop.

UPDATE:  Obama did not sponsor her visa:

She attended Obama's swearing-in to the U.S. Senate in 2004, but campaign officials said Obama provided no assistance in getting her a tourist visa and doesn't know the details of her stay. The campaign said he last heard from her about two years ago when she called saying she was in Boston, but he did not see her there.

But she did contribute illegally to his campaign, so the Obama folks ought to return the money.

According to Federal Election Commission documents filed by the Obama campaign, Onyango has contributed $260 to Obama over a period of time. Under federal election law, only U.S. citizens or green-card holders are legally permitted to give money to campaigns. Onyango, who listed her employer as the Boston Housing Authority, gave in small increments to the Obama campaign. Her latest contribution was $5 on Sept. 19.