President Obama's uncle represented by one of my colleagues in Removal Hearings

A Boston judge today set a Dec. 3 deportation hearing for President Obama’s uncle, Onyango Obama, to determine whether he should be forced to return to his native Kenya. Immigration Judge Leonard I. Shapiro set the date during a brief hearing in a Boston immigration court. Obama joined a crowd of more than 30 immigrants from Pakistan, Guatemala, and Uganda who were facing hearings. After Shapiro’s ruling, Obama’s attorney, Scott Bratton, told reporters that his client’s long-term goal is to remain in the United States. “Everybody wants to stay in America,’’ said Bratton. “Hopefully, on Dec. 3, the case will be over.’’ Despite a deportation order issued against him 21 years ago, Obama, a 68-year-old liquor store manager, stayed in Massachusetts, living and working undetected until Framingham police arrested him in August 2011 on drunken driving charges. He later admitted to sufficient facts in the case and was sentenced to a year’s probation that ends in March. In November, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted him a new hearing based in part on his claim that his prior lawyer, now dead, was ineffective. His lawyers have also pointed out that he has lived in the United States for most of his life, since he arrived almost 50 years ago as a young man to attend an elite boys’ school in Cambridge. Congrats and good luck Scott!