Obama’s Aunt’s Boston apartment building. (AP Photo)

The news hit the Drudge Report yesterday that Barack Obama’s half-aunt, a Kenyan immigrant named Zeituni Onyango, is living in the United States illegally after her application for asylum was rejected. The Times of London “discovered” her in a Boston housing project, where neighbors described her as “living quietly.” The Obama campaign says Barack Obama was unaware of his relative’s status.

Right wingers have seized on the story, noting especially the fact that Onyango is living in taxpayer-funded public housing. It is unknown how she came to live in the housing project, but among immigration restrictionists’ chief complaints is that illegal immigrants take advantage of government services without paying taxes. This development might stoke that fire.

Democrats and some reporters are suspicious of the story’s timing, saying that it cannot be a coincidence that the information leaked so close to election day. ICE has issued an order requiring high-level approval for any deportations before election day.

The illegal immigrant aspect of the story probably will have little effect on the election. The primary danger to Obama is that his aunt’s status will lend him an aura of foreignness that he has struggled to shake off in many conservative areas of the country. But polls already show the electorate tipping in Obama’s favor, and the McCain campaign is staying away from the story.