The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement website confirmed Obama’s release by listing him as “not in custody.’’
Although the website confirmed it, Brian P. Hale, an agency spokesman, said he would not comment on the case because privacy laws and the agency’s policies prohibit it. He said the database is accurate, however.
As a result of the immigration agency’s refusal to discuss the case, it is unclear what happened to Obama after he left the Plymouth County House of Correction - or whether he could be returned to jail.
An official at the Plymouth County House of Correction who would not give his name said yesterday afternoon that Obama was no longer in custody. He had been taken to Burlington, where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has offices, he said.
In Framingham, the people who shared a modest frame house with Obama on a residential street said they did not know where he was. A co-worker at Conti Liquors, where Obama worked, said they had not heard of his release.
His Cleveland lawyers, Margaret Wong and Scott Bratton, were unavailable for comment, and an assistant said they had not been notified that he was released.
Onyango Obama was the half-brother of the president’s late father. At the time of his arrest, Obama allegedly told Framingham police, “I think I will call the White House’’ to arrange bail.
But last week the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said the president did not expect his uncle to receive special treatment.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tougher limits on immigration, said the immigration agency should be more transparent, especially in a case involving a relative of the president. She said the public deserves to know the circumstances of Obama’s release, since he violated a deportation order and is accused of drunken driving. In a criminal court, she said, that would be public information.
Obama pleaded not guilty in Framingham District Court to charges of drunken driving, negligent operation, and failing to yield.
