In a case making national headlines, U.S. Immigration authorities sidestep a showdown with a Troy mother of three.
“ICE is presently conducting a review of Ms.[Cile] Precetaj’s case. Therefore her removal is not imminent at this time,” a representative of the U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement agency said late Tuesday afternoon, Tresa Baldas reports in an update on a story she broke hours earlier.
An elated Precetaj broke down crying at the news.
“I was just hugging my kids, saying ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’ I don’t have to be scared,” Precetaj said after learning her case was getting reviewed.
The 41-year-old said her dream is to stay in the U.S. and “raise my kids in this beautiful country.”
“I feel so glad, and I appreciate what they do for me right now,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s going to work for me and they’re going to keep me here.”
Tuesday afternoon article:
An Albanian mother of three American children who was given 24 hours notice for deportation has decided to stay put rather than report to Detroit Metro Airport today, as ordered, Tresa Baldas reports in the Free Press.
Cile Precetaj of Troy was scheduled for deportation at 10:30 a.m. — an event she was given a day’s notice of. But her husband told the Free Press this morning they decided to stay home and let U.S. immigration officials come and get her instead so they “can show the world the hardened criminals” immigration is going after.
“What crimes has she committed? She’s tried every way to work with these people” said her husband, Pjetero (Pete) Gojcevic, arguing his 40-year-old wife has lived a clean life with no criminal record, “not even a parking ticket.” He said his children and wife have been in dire straits all morning.
“We’re horrible. The girls want to know why they’re not going to school. They’re on pins and needles,” said Gojcevic, a Yugoslavian immigrant who has lived in the United States for 40 years.
Cile immigrated to the United States illegally 13 years ago to escape an abusive fiance and violent culture, Baldas writes. She sought asylum, but an immigration judge denied her request in 2007, concluding her testimony about fear and crime was not credible, and that even if it was, attractive women in that situation do not qualify for asylum.
But the woman’s lawyer, family and neighbors believe she’s earned the right to live here.
