President Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenya native who once cared for his siblings, defied a deportation order in 2004, is preparing to make her case in federal Immigration Court that she be allowed to stay in the United States.

Zeituni Onyango, 57, is expecting to make her second bid for political asylum Thursday before an immigration judge in Boston and could potentially argue that her relationship to the president would make her a political target in Kenya's unstable political climate.

Immigration attorney Hanishi Ali said she is unsure what effect Onyango's status as Obama's aunt will have on her asylum bid, but said: "It can't hurt."

"She wants to stay in this country so bad," said Mike Rogers, a spokesman for her attorney.

Onyango moved to the United States in 2000 and first applied for asylum in 2002.

Her request was rejected and she was ordered deported in 2004, but she did not leave the country and continued to live in public housing in Boston.

Her status as an illegal immigrant was revealed just days before Obama was elected in November 2008. Obama said he did not know his aunt was living here illegally and believes laws covering the situation should be followed.

A judge later agreed to suspend her deportation order and reopen her asylum case.

People who seek asylum must show that they face persecution in their homeland on the basis of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

Onyango's immigration attorney, Margaret Wong of Cleveland, said last year that her client first applied for asylum "due to violence in Kenya," but she did not reveal what grounds she has cited in her renewed bid for asylum.

The East African nation is fractured by cycles of electoral violence every five years.

Onyango did not return telephone calls seeking comment this week.

But in an interview in November, she said she did not tell Obama she was in the country illegally and never asked him to intervene.

She also said she has her exiled herself from Obama and his family because she didn't want to become political fodder for his foes.

"Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all," Onyango told The Associated Press at the time.

During the "merits hearing" Thursday, Onyango and her lawyers will get the opportunity to present her reasons for seeking asylum.