President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he did live with his Kenyan uncle for a brief period in the 1980s before he went to attend Harvard Law School. This admission contradicts a previous statement, from 2011, from the White House about them not having any record of them ever meeting.
His uncle, Onyango "Omar" Obama, who has been living illegally in the United States since the 1970s, currently is at the center of a deportation hearing, reports the Boston Globe. During testimony, Onyango said that Obama had stayed with him for about three weeks in Cambridge.
The White House press office came forward on Thursday and admitted that it had not researched into Obama's relationship with his uncle before releasing a statement in 2011.
Omar Obama will be allowed to remain in the U.S., an immigration judge ruled on Tuesday, The Associated Press reports. The judge said that he is of "good moral character." He was arrested in 2011 for drunk driving and reportedly told police, "I think I will call the White House."
The Globe notes that Omar Obama is the second relative of President Obama to face deportation since 2008. Obama's sister, Zeituni Onyango, managed to win asylum in 2010 after it was learned she had been living in Boston illegally.