WASHINGTON (AP) – A Guatemalan refugee who is the focus of a long-running debate over asylum for battered women will be allowed to remain in the United States, the Homeland Security Department decided Friday.

The case of Rodi Alvarado Pena had been in the hands of Attorney General John Ashcroft, who said two years ago he would decide her fate. On Friday, he opted neither to grant nor deny asylum to Alvarado, who came to the United States 10 years ago to escape repeated and savage beatings from her husband, a former soldier.

Following Ashcroft’s order, Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger said even if Alvarado ultimately is denied asylum, “The Department of Homeland Security will not pursue her removal from the United States.”

The new domestic security agency supported asylum for Alvarado in a memorandum to Ashcroft last year. Strassberger said the department, which took over most immigration matters from the Justice Department, is drafting new rules for asylum claims from battered women.

Karen Musalo, Alvarado’s California-based lawyer, said the decision is only a partial victory since her client still cannot be reunited with her children, who remain in Guatemala. People granted asylum have the right to bring their children to the United States, Musalo said.

Advocates for women and immigration rights had hoped Alvarado’s situation would already have led to a change in U.S. policy to recognize asylum cases filed by victims of domestic violence. Former Attorney General Janet Reno proposed such a change in her final hours in office in 2001.

With the change in administrations and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the proposal languished. Opponents have said new asylum rules would lead to a surge in claims, an assertion disputed by advocates.

Under U.S. law, asylum applicants have to show they can’t go home because they face persecution because of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. The regulation proposed by Reno would have allowed battered women to be considered members of a social group.