Who didn't see this coming?
Come on in, Omar... your drivers license is ready!
By John Zaremba
Thursday, May 10, 2012
President Obamas deportation-dodging uncle can legally walk into a Registry of Motor Vehicles office tomorrow and walk out with a drivers license even though he isnt here legally 45 days after copping a plea in the drunken-driving bust that exposed him as a 20-year fugitive from federal immigration authorities.
Onyango Obama, 67, has completed the month-and-a-half suspension a judge slapped on him in late March, when he admitted that Framingham cops had enough evidence to convict him for an OUI bust in August.
The news renewed outrage over the RMVs treatment of the case especially among Republican lawmakers who demanded answers last month, when Obama scored a special license that allowed him to drive to his job as a liquor store manager.
How could someone whos in the country not legally, whos been the subject of a deportation order for several years, how could he be eligible to receive a license from the commonwealth? said Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). If theyre preparing to give him a license, the Registry has a lot of explaining to do to the people who play by the rules and are here legally.
Registrar Rachel Kaprielian was unavailable for comment yesterday. She has said her agency requires Social Security numbers Obama has had one of those since at least the early 1990s but does not check applicants immigration status.
Theyre suffering from conscious myopia, said Tarr, one of several GOP leaders pushing the registry to include immigration status in the license-application process. Theyre looking narrowly at things and not at the broader reality that this individual might not be here legally.
But immigration lawyer Desmond FitzGerald said requiring Social Security numbers can at times be too harsh a restriction as when it keeps licenses out of the hands of international doctors and scientists who live here temporarily.
It will prevent their families from being able to function in our community. And we want to encourage that, he said.
Obama is a Kenyan national who has been living in the United States since 1963.
A judge ordered him deported in 1992 after what Obamas lawyer said was an unknowing failure to renew his visa. He has had a Massachusetts drivers license since at least the early 1990s, said RMV spokeswoman Sara Lavoied. She declined to comment on the registrys issuing of a license to a known illegal.
Obamas sister, the presidents Aunt Zeituni Onyango, who won asylum in a controversial 2010 case, does not have a license but holds a state-issued ID, Lavoie said.
Come on in, Omar... your driver’s license is ready! - BostonHerald.com