This week, Barack Obama’s uncle Onyango Obama was granted permanent resident legal status by an immigration judge in Boston. Onyango is the half-brother of Barack Obama Sr. and had been in the U.S. since 1963, illegally since 1970. Apparently, Onyango was asked by his attorney, Margaret Wong – during the hearing – to identify any relatives in the U.S.

Onyango Obama: Perjury by omission?

He appears to have omitted a very controversial one, presumably under oath.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

During the hearing, Wong asked the 69-year-old liquor store manager whether he had any relatives in America. Obama said he had a sister, two nieces and a nephew.

Asked to name the nephew, he replied: “Barack Obama. He’s the president of the United States.”

Judge Leonard Shapiro ruled from the bench that Onyango Obama qualified for a provision in federal immigration law that allows immigrants who have lived in the United States since before 1972 and have “good moral character” to apply for legal permanent residency, also known as a “green card.”

The truth is that Onyango has two nephews in America – Barack Obama and Malik Obama. Malik is the half-brother of President Obama and has been a resident in the U.S. for decades.

Via Reuters:

Malik Obama, a resident of the United States, has lived in Washington DC since 1985 where he worked with various firms before becoming an independent financial consultant.

In his office are framed photographs of himself with President Obama in the Oval office and another at the president’s wedding, where he was the best man.

He lives partly in the United States where he takes up work contracts from time to time and Kenya.

Since the question about relatives in the U.S. was posed to Onyango by his own attorney, it’s reasonable to conclude that she knew how he was going to answer. Why did Onyango omit Malik in his response to the question? Are we to believe he didn’t know Malik has been a U.S. resident for twenty-eight years?

Barack and Malik in the Oval Office.

Those who seek to split hairs by responding that Malik may be in Kenya run into a bit of a problem too. You see, earlier this year, a complaint (case 1761) was filed against Malik Obama in Egypt. The Attorney General in that country – Hisham Barakat – and a former Constitutional Court judge – Tahani Al-Jebali – have taken interest in that complaint. The man who filed it – Dr. Sadek Ebeid – reported that he was informed by his attorney that when officials at the Kenyan embassy attempted to serve Malik with papers, they couldn’t, because Malik was not in country.

Guess where the embassy said Malik was:

Soon after the case was filed, ElGanzory was permitted to serve Malik Obama with papers. He did so at the Kenyan embassy. Recently, after being called back to the embassy, the papers were returned to ElGanzory with a message that Malik is not in Kenya at this time and could not be served. ElGanzory was told Malik is in the U.S. I expect the next course of action to be that papers will be presented to the American embassy so that Malik can be properly served.

It is worth reiterating that an attorney representing a client on an expired visa would be careful to know how her client is going to answer at his own hearing. It was Wong’s duty to know if the answers given by her client were truthful. It was also her duty to know exactly how many relatives Onyango has in the U.S. and who they are, before she asked the question.

That leads to the question about why Malik’s name would not be mentioned by Onyango.

Could it have anything to do with the strength of the case against him?

Malik Obama and Omar al-Bashir: at same 2010 IDO Conference in Khartoum.