An aunt of President Obama whose immigration status grabbed headlines before the president's 2008 election has died in Massachusetts.Attorney Margaret Wong, who represented the president's aunt in her immigration case, said Zeituni Onyango died Tuesday in a Boston rehabilitation center.Wong said that Onyango, 61, who was the half sister of the president's father, was being treated for cancer and respiratory problems.Onyango moved to the U.S. from Kenya in 2000and was denied asylum by an immigration judge in 2004. But she remained in the country illegally, living in Boston public housing.Her immigration case made headlines before Obama's election in 2008.Wong, who referred to Onyango as "Auntie," recalled her as "a fine, tall, elegant woman who was very good with computers,""After her vilification by the press during the President's campaign, she fought hard for her legal status," Wong said in a statement. "She loved to travel, mostly by train, and enjoyed taking pictures everywhere she went."She was eventually granted asylum in 2010 by a judge who said she could be in danger if she returned to Kenya because of her relationship with Obama.Wong said Onyango wrote her memoirs, titledTears of Abuse,which was published in 2012 by Afripress Publishing Holdings.In the book, Onyango wrote about her family:"The Obama Clan is like the Baobab tree; the strength lies in its roots. The conviction to produce results is cherished…."Obama first met his father's side of the family when he traveled to Africa as a young man. He referred to Onyango as "Auntie Zeituni" when describing the trip in his memoir, saying she was "a proud woman."After her immigration status was first reported on by theTimes of London, Obama's campaignsaid he had seen her a few times since that meeting, beginning with a return trip to Kenya with first lady Michelle Obama in 1992.Onyango visited the president's family in Chicago on a tourist visa at Obama's invitation in the late 1990s.She made about $260 in contributions to the president's 2008 presidential run, but the campaign returned the money after they learned she was living in the U.S. illegally.In a telephone interview, Wong said that Onyango didn't hold any ill will toward the president for his campaign returning her contribution and she remained a staunch defender of her nephew through the first years of his presidency."Anytime somebody would say the president could have done this or that for her, she would say, 'Whoa, the president is only one human being,'" Wong said. "There was absolutely no resentment."
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