More bad news this morning for the long-suffering Giudice clan of This Real Housewives of New Jersey fame.
As you may recall, “Juicy” Joe Giudice is currently behind bars serving 41 months on tax fraud charges.
Joe was born in Italy and never obtained American citizenship.
As such, the pride of the Garden State became a possible candidate for deportation the moment he was convicted of a felony.
Now, TMZ is reporting that the Giudice family’s worst fears have been realized, and Joe will indeed be forced to return to his homeland.
Once he’s through serving his sentence, he’s outta here.
“Based upon the law, I find you deportable and ineligible for any kind of relief,” a judge ruled in immigration court this morning.
“Mr. Giudice, no matter how this turns out, I wish you the best,” the judge added. “I decided this case as a matter of law.”
Joe and his lawyers are expected to appeal the decision.
They have been granted 30 days to complete the process.
Needless to say, Joe’s prospects of remaining in the United States are not promising, but at least he’s … locked up for the time being.
The question now is whether Teresa Giudice and her four daughters will join the family patriarch in his trip back across the pond.
For a long time, it was widely assumed that Teresa would not be moving to Italy with Joe.
She’s raising four girls who all have strong familial roots in Jersey, and it would be difficult to uproot them, no question.
Moreover, it seems unlikely that Teresa would be able to make the kind of money she’s accustomed to anywhere other than the Garden State.
Maybe Bravo would be willing to send a camera crew to the Boot to shoot a one-off special about the Giudice’s relocation?
In any case, it seems unlikely that Teresa would be able to continue participating in the show that made her famous.
On top of all that rumors of Teresa and Joe getting divorced predate the couple’s legal troubles by several years.
But in recent weeks, Teresa has been hinting that she would be willing to at least make a go of life in Italy.
“Italy’s a beautiful place to live,” Teresa said in a recent interview with Andy Cohen.
“I wouldn’t mind; I’m just saying,” she added.
“Whatever God has planned for me, then that’s what’s gonna happen. And I will embrace it the best that I can.”
Well, we guess Teresa’s got the right attitude.
Hopefully, she keeps up that optimism through the hard times ahead, because it looks like there will be plenty of them.