| Boston Herald Feb. 4--President Obama's "Auntie" Zeituni Onyango can stay in South Boston -- for now. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS Her removal proceeding today in federal court in Boston versus the Department of Homeland Security has concluded, but a final decision on her residency is not due until the spring. The judge is giving both Onyango and the government 30 days to file closing arguments. He will then rule on her future no later than the May 25. Onyango became a lightning rod for the immigration debate when she was discovered living illegally in South Boston during her nephew's landmark 2008 White House run. She was in federal court today in a wheelchair asking a federal judge to throw her a welcome mat. Onyango, the 57-year-old Kenyan half-sister of Obama's late father, has been in the country illegally since being ordered deported in 2004. In a removal proceeding versus the Department of Homeland Security she succeeded in barring the public from, Onyango will argued for political asylum before U.S. Immigration Judge Leonard I. Shapiro -- though it's unclear on what grounds. One month after she became the aunt of the president of the United States, Shapiro granted her a temporary stay to remain in the country and reopened her case. Still, Onyango has her work cut out for her. According to a Syracuse University analysis of decisions by immigration judges, between 2004 and 2009, Shapiro denied 581 of the 867 asylum claims before him, or, 67 percent of the cases. That was 10 percent higher than the national denial average, Syracuse reported. Wearing a red turtleneck, black slacks, a cream-colored blazer and a large gold necklace, Onyango testified this morning for two-and-a-half hours. When asked if President Obama had submitted anything on his aunt's behalf, attorney Margaret Wong smiled and said "absolutely not." The Department of Homeland Security did not call any witnesses. In addition to her own testimony, Onyango called two physicians, David Stone and Dr. Robert Weiss. Cohn said the aunt has an autoimmune disorder called Guillain Barr syndrome and she confirmed that the doctors will discuss Onyango's medical condition. "But that's not the only aspect of the case", Cohn said. Two armed officers from Federal Protective Services, stood outside the courtroom doors. For the past several months, Onyango, a computer programmer, has unsuccessfully tried to fly below the radar in a modest public-housing apartment in Southie sporting a sticker of Old Glory on her front door. "Beggars can't be choosers", she told the Herald in July while wearing a string of pearls and sleeveless forest-green sheath she said her nephew bought her years before. "I'd like to live in a castle and have a limousine, but I don't. My wealth is my health." Onyango said then she didn't need the leader of the free world as a character witness. "My problem is my problem", she proudly said. "I carry my own cross." Mike Rogers, spokesman for the Cleveland, Ohio, law firm defending Onyango, said this week she wants to remain in Boston. "I think that's where her friends are", Rogers said.
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