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BOSTON: United States President Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt, who was ordered deported five years ago, can stay in the United States legally until next year when she must make a new asylum bid, an immigration judge ruled on Wednesday.
The issue of her immigration status flared three days before he was elected the first black president last November. His father was from Kenya and his white mother, from America.
Ms Zeituni Onyango, 56, who Mr Obama calls "Auntie Zeituni" in one of his memoirs, has been living in a public-housing complex in Boston and is the half-sister of Mr Obama's father.
"The decision as to Ms Onyango's request to stay permanently in the US will be made during a second hearing," said Mr Michael Rogers, a spokesman for her lawyer, Ms Margaret Wong.
The next hearing is set for Feb 4, 2010.
Ms Onyango first visited the US in 1975. In 2001, she received a Social Security card and, the following year, she sought political asylum due to violence in Kenya.
A federal immigration judge rejected her asylum request in 2004, ordering her to leave the US. She remained in Boston.
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