An uncle of President Obama was arrested in Framingham, MA last week for drunk driving, and detained as an illegal immigrant, according to CNN.
Onyango Obama, the half-brother of the President’s father, was arrested for driving under the influence, failure to yield and operating a motor vehicle to endanger, after failing “several” sobriety tests on August 24, according to local law enforcement officials.
According to the AP, when officers asked Obama if he wanted to make a phone call, he replied: “I think I will call the White House.”
He was held without bail at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. From CNN:
According to a a federal law enforcement source who spoke on condition of not being identified, Onyango Obama was not legally in the United States and has been previously ordered removed from the country. His case is now going through the immigration process, the source said.
According to the Times of London, the President referenced Onyango Obama in his 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father, describing him as “the uncle who had left for America 25 years ago and had never come back”.
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Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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