Judge Rules Obama Uncle Can Stay in US, Was Ordered to Leave Country Two Decades Ago

Half-brother of the president's father has been here since studying in the 60s, manages a liquor store

The uncle of President Barack Obama will be allowed to stay in the United States despite having overstayed a student visa for decades, a Boston immigration judge ruled Tuesday.

Onyango "Omar" Obama came to the U.S. from Kenya with his brother, Barack Obama's father, on a student visa in 1963. That visa expired in 1970, but the judge ruled that Onyango Obama was an upstanding member of his community and met the legal requirements for permanent residency under a federal law that allows residency for people living in the U.S. since before 1972. According to documents obtained by the Boston Globe, Onyango Obama was ordered deported in 1986 and 1989 and lost an appeal in 1992. The question of deportation rose again after he was arrested for drunken driving in Framingham, near Boston, in 2011.