Joe Giudice, husband of 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' star Teresa Giudice, was born in Italy. He has faced deportation ever since ICE placed a detainer on him in 2016, when he started a prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion.
The possibility of deportation has always loomed for Joe Giudice, husband of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Teresa Giudice.
Joe Giudice, 46, has been serving a 41-month prison sentence since March 2016 after being found guilty in federal court on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud and failure to file tax returns.
On Thursday, RadarOnline cited an unnamed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson who said Giudice, who was born in Italy, is “in deportation proceedings.”
But James Leonard, the Giudice family attorney, told People that “no decision has been made regarding the immigration status of Joe Giudice.”
The ICE detainer is not new and has existed since Giudice was first incarcerated in 2016.
“The same immigration detainer that was lodged against him in March of 2016 remains in place today, but I want to be absolutely clear about this, no judicial authority has made any decision regarding what will happen with that detainer,” he said.
“Mr. Giudice has immigration counsel who are and have been working aggressively on his behalf so that he can return home to his wife and four young daughters and we remain optimistic that that is how this will end,” Leonard added.
NJ Advance Media has reached out to Jerard Gonzalez, Giudice’s immigration attorney.
Giudice, who started his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix in 2016, was recently transferred to prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, where he could have a hearing on his immigration status.
Giudice, whose parents moved to the United States when he was 1, would likely be moved to ICE custody when his sentence is complete. He is scheduled for release in March 2019.
When a legal permanent resident commits an aggravated felony or crime of “moral turpitude,” including fraud, ICE can start removal proceedings.
At Fort Dix, Giudice, whose legal name is Giuseppe Giudice, was barred from alcohol counseling because of the ICE detainer. The Residential Drug Abuse Program would have qualified him for early release.
When he was sentenced in 2014, the court recommended that Giudice be remanded to a facility near his home where he could undergo treatment for alcohol abuse. Just after his sentencing, Giudice said in a Bravo interview that he had been drinking up to four bottles of wine per day. In 2010, he was charged with driving while intoxicated. Allenwood is about 150 miles away from the Giudices’ home in Towaco, while Fort Dix is about 90 miles away.
If Giudice were to have remained at Fort Dix, he could not have fought deportation until his release.
Before Joe began his prison sentence, Teresa Giudice was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being indicted, alongside Joe, on charges of bank, bankruptcy, wire and mail fraud. She served just shy of a year at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, from January to December 2015. A judge allowed Joe Giudice to start his sentence after Teresa so that one parent could remain home with their four daughters.
In a 2015 special episode of “RHONJ” filmed while Teresa was in prison, Joe Giudice addressed the possibility of deportation, saying that Teresa and his daughters would move to Italy to be with him. Teresa has also said she would move with her family to Italy if Joe was deported.