Barack Obama’s aunt has been living in the United States illegally for the past four years, the Associated Press has learned. Zeituni Onyango’s request for assylum had been denied by an immigration judge back in 2004 and was instructed to leave. Apparently she didn’t care.

Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango’s case.

Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcment official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.

Onyango’s refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, non-criminal violation of U.S. immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Estimates vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the United States.

So, how has this aunt of Barack “Spread the Wealth” Obama been living for the past few years? In poverty in a public housing project near Boston. Maybe “spreading the wealth” should start at home, Senator Obama.