THE DEPARTMENT of homeland security is investigating whether its privacy rules were breached after a report emerged that Barack Obama's aunt has been living in the United States illegally.
Mr Obama's campaign said the Democrat did not know that Zeituni Onyango, his late father's half-sister, was in the country, adding that it was returning a small number of contributions she made to the campaign. "Given the information that has been brought to our attention, the contributions are being refunded," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said.
"Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed."
The Associated Press reported at the weekend that Ms Onyango, a Kenyan citizen who is living in public housing in Boston, was denied asylum in 2004 and ordered to leave the US.
In his autobiography, Dreams From My Father, Mr Obama described meeting Ms Onyango when he went to Kenya in 1988 after his father's death. They met again in Kenya four years later and Ms Onyango attended her nephew's swearing-in as a US senator in 2005. Mr Obama did not help his aunt to obtain a tourist visa to visit the US or take any part in her immigration case, his campaign said.
The department of homeland security has strict rules about disclosing information about immigration cases, particularly when they involve applications for political asylum. John McCain's adviser Mark Salter dismissed the news about Mr Obama's aunt as "a family matter".