The Obama administration wants political asylum for a Guatemalan woman fleeing an abusive husband, U.S. government sources said Friday.

With White House backing, Rody Alvarado Peña likely will be allowed to stay in the United States after fighting immigration court since 1995, The New York Times reported.

Alvarado currently lives in California where she is a housekeeper at a home for elderly nuns. She told the newspaper she was pleased but wondered why it took so long.

Immigration lawyers said the administration had taken a major step toward defining the legal grounds in a murky area of asylum law under which battered and sexually abused women in foreign countries could seek U.S. protection.

The Department of Homeland Security cleared the way after 14 years of legal indecision during which several immigration courts and three attorneys general considered Alvarado's case.

An immigration judge's order is still needed but it was expected to be forthcoming, observers told the Times..