Any Wonder Why Immigration Laws Have Been Ignored During the Obama Administration?

Last week, the White House confirmed that President Obama did in fact live with his uncle in Massachusetts for several weeks while attending Harvard Law School. (The Washington Post, Dec. 3, 2013) The confirmation by the White House constitutes a complete about face from White House's earlier claims that the President and his uncle, Onyango "Omar" Obama, had never met.  However, when Uncle Obama testified about the relationship during his immigration hearing last week, the White House was finally forced to come clean. (See Boston Globe, Jan. 7, 2012; see also Breitbart News and Daily Caller)

Whether the White House knew it had lied about the President's relationship with his uncle is unclear.  However, it seems the White House had every interest in distancing the President from his illegal alien uncle.  Uncle Omar had entered the United States on a student visa in 1963 and remained in the U.S. illegally after his visa expired.  He was denied an extension of that visa when he falsely claimed he was employed, and was subsequently ordered to leave the U.S. three times: in 1986, 1989, and 1992. (The Daily Caller, Dec. 3, 2013) Finally, when he was arrested for drunk driving in 2011, authorities discovered he was an illegal alien and the media identified him as President Barack Obama's uncle. (Fox News, Aug. 29, 2011) After his arrest, he allegedly said, "I think I will call the White House." (Reuters, Dec. 3, 2013)

But less than 48 hours after Uncle Omar testified at his deportation hearing (in which the judge granted him a green card) a White House spokesman admitted that not only had the two met, they lived together and kept in contact for some time. "The president first met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school," said spokesman Eric Schultz. (The Boston Globe, Dec. 5, 2013) "The president did stay with him for a brief period of time until his apartment was ready. After that, they saw each other once every few months, but after law school they fell out of touch. The president has not seen him in 20 years, has not spoken with him in 10." (Id.)

Reiterating these talking points, at a White House press conference Press Secretary Jay Carney clarified that the reason for the gaffe was that no one had actually asked the President himself whether the two had met. Carney told reporters that when asked about the uncle's drunk driving offense, White House officials had relied upon the president's own books and the public record to determine that they had never met. "Back when this arose, folks looked at the record, including the president's book, and there was no evidence that they had met," Carney said. "That was what was conveyed. Nobody spoke to the president." However, he then told reporters that in light of Uncle Omar's statement, he "thought it was the right thing to do" to ask President Obama personally about his relationship with Uncle Omar, at which point the truth came out. (See White House Press Briefing Transcript, Dec. 5, 2013)

Ben Ferro

benferro@insideins.com