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How Did Obama’s Uncle Omar Get a SS#?

The Boston Herald is reporting that the president’s other illegal-alien relative, Uncle Omar Onyango Obama, arrested last week for drunk driving, has  had a valid Social Security number for at least 19 years. Kerry Picket speculates it may just have been a nine-digit ID number made up by state employees for illegal aliens, but it could well be a genuine number, and here’s how: Uncle Omar might have had a visa that permitted work authorization and then simply overstayed, or he may have applied for asylum (which application, before 1995, gave you automatic work authorization) and then not left after he was turned down. In either case, the problem is the same — the Social Security Administration has no means of cancelling or freezing the numbers of temporary visa-holders after their legal period of stay here expires, or the numbers of legal residents who have been deported, say, for criminal activity. That means an overstayer can just keep using his genuine number, and a permanent resident who’s been deported can just sneak back in and resume use of his genuine number.

That’s why Rep. Lamar Smith, who’s ahead of the curve on this sort of thing, has in his E-Verify bill (online here, see section 10, paragraph c) a requirement that DHS block for purposes of verification SSNs held by people who’ve been deported or by temporary workers whose time has expired. Combined with mandatory use of E-Verify for all new hires, this would have prevented the president’s Uncle Omar from getting his liquor store job.

The House Judiciary Committee is set to take up the bill in a couple of weeks, and Uncle Omar’s escapades should make the legislation that much easier to move out of committee.

New on The Corner. . .


COMMENTS   22

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Aarradin
   08/30/11 17:12

It'll be good practice for 2013 when they can actually get this passed.

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   08/30/11 17:19

Has anyone ever found a living blood relative of Obama that is an American citizen?

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   Jason
   08/30/11 18:08
   08/30/11 18:52

You know why.

But Barack doesn't need a "living" blood relative who's a US citizen.

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Don't Settle for Rick Perry
   08/30/11 17:19

Mark, you raise an interesting point.

Had Smith's bill passed 19 years ago, it would've prevented Uncle 'Bama from getting a job.

But since Smith's E-Verify mandate applies only to new hires rather than all employees, he could've gone on holding that job today, had Smith's bill passed and had he not been arrested for driving after sampling his employer's goods, no?

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   08/30/11 17:20

am waiting with bated breath for the MSM to ask about about his uncle ...

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   08/30/11 17:22

Which congressional district(s) is he registered to vote in?

Or does asking that make me xenophobic?

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   08/30/11 17:31

Maybe we should be relieved he's working--albeit with a fraudulent SSN. Obama's other illegal alien relative, Auntie Zeituni is living in public housing in Boston (senior citizen public housing at that, even though she is 59), collecting welfare--that she says the US "owes" her:
External Link 

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   08/30/11 18:42

If Omar has had that number for 19 years, than it's certainly not "Obama's fault".

However, if there is no investigation or consequences for lawbreaking by Obama relatives, then I think there is a real problem for Obama. It sounds like Uncle Omar is 1) in the country illegally, 2) has fraudulent papers, and 3) also just got picked up for drunk driving.

Do you think anyone will take Omar's illegal SSN away, let alone deport him? It's in all the papers, I don't see how the govt can turn a blind eye to obvious lawbreaking without giving the appearance that Obama's relatives are "above the law."

Though on the other hand, Obama is against enforcement of any immigration or ID laws in the first place. So I guess at least you can't call him a hypocrite!

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Jprev40
   08/30/11 18:45

You guys are so Brilliiant. Lets hold hearings to uncover Obama's plot to give all nonwhites citizenship. That way they can mate with all the whites and take over

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   08/30/11 19:52

Jprev40 is that your fear? They do have meds for this type of phobia.

Thanks for the compliment - most of the people on this site are Brilliant.

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   08/30/11 22:45

That sounds like a lot of mating, but I'll keep up my end.

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   08/30/11 18:50

I began college in the USA (I am a born in the USA, US citizen, child of born in the USA, US citizens, all legal). I finished college in Canada, on a student visa. A condition of the visa was that I could not work in Canada. So, I didn't.

In that era, British Commonwealth students (such as from Hong Kong, then independent) could work under their visas, being a type of second-class citizen (as is Obama with Britain). Yet, other students who were hard to distinguish from Commonwealth subjects, would sometimes cheat and work while having student visas.

As graduation approached, I applied for (and obtained) Canadian residence, equivalent to the US "green card" there. After all, a Canadian degree was often better in Canada than in the USA (times have changed, though).

The system for obtaining residence was based strictly on merit, with a point system and interview. Upon success, I got a Canadian equivalent of my US Social Security number. I still know that number.

But a long time ago, I left Canada and returned to the US. It not being temporary, under Canadian law my residence there was canceled; I'd have to apply again if I wanted to go back as a resident. Yet I still known my old Canadian number, which is unique.

Now, if I went into Canada as a tourist from the US, and when I got there attempted to use my old Canadian number to get a job (pretending to be a legal resident there), what do you think would happen? Keep in mind that I'm a white collar type, not a ditch-digger. Canucks: What's your term for "slammer," eh?

Incidentally, I paid into the Canadian equivalent of Social Security, but won't see the payback. No problem; they funded part of my higher education.

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   08/30/11 19:04

"...the Social Security Administration has no means of cancelling or freezing the numbers..."

You have to be kidding. I'm a database guy with 28 years in the field, and you're telling me the SSA has no way to deactivate a SSN in their system? Are they still using a paper filing system?

This is a disgrace. Any first-year developer could write a system that would let an ID be deactivated.

Just shameful.

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   08/30/11 21:30

James, James, James. They don't WANT to. It might shrink their budget rather than expanding it; can't have that.

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   08/31/11 11:00

Actually, the Social Security system cancels an SSN upon being notified of a person's death. This happens surely and quickly.

In fact, I recently learned that I person whom I peripherally knew had died. Some web site automatically mines the SS database of canceled numbers, and posted a death notice online, within a few weeks. I found this out when I searched for the person's name, for other reasons.

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   08/31/11 00:57

For a very brief period today, the Los Angeles Times actually reported this arrest on its front page. It's gone now. Of course, the paper glossed over the fact that the arrest was Aug.-frickin'-24 and the story first appeared in an Australian paper. Lame.

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Robert17
   08/31/11 01:01

He got his SSN the same way Obama got his Connecticut one. Bill Ayers created it from baby names he rounded up in cemeteries. Don't believe me? Read his book.

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   08/31/11 08:37

MSM reaction: "LOOK! A Kardashian had a wardrobe malfunction!!! Uncle Omar? Who's Uncle Omar? LOOK! Rick Perry's college transcripts!!! Omaba's transcripts? RACIST!!! RACIST!!!"

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   08/31/11 09:53

"Combined with mandatory use of E-Verify for all new hires, this would have prevented the president’s Uncle Omar from getting his liquor store job."

What kind of person sits around and worries that a liquor store job in Framingham, MA might have been held illegally? Don't you have anything better to do Mark Krikorian?

You could obsess about speeding offenses that went unpunished or mattress tags that were removed illegally.

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