Teresa Giudice's attorney gives an update on Joe's status to ET.
Joe Giudice is staying behind bars.
After beginning his 41-month prison sentence in March 2016, Teresa Giudice's husband had been set to be released from federal prison on March 14. However, as Teresa's attorney, James Leonard, tells ET, Joe will not be released as expected.
"The custodial aspect of Mr. Giudice’s federal sentence does in fact expire on or about March 14, 2019," Leonard says. “However, due to the immigration order and detainer lodged against him, that is not a release date -- meaning he is not coming home on that date."
"We are optimistic that once his appeal is heard, he will receive the appropriate relief and will be able to come home and remain there with his family. They love him, they support him and they miss him tremendously," he adds.
Joe filed a last-minute appeal last November to dispute his order to leave the United States at the end of his prison sentence. ET confirmed a month prior that Joe, who is serving out his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey, had been ordered by Immigration Judge John Ellington to leave the United States at the end of his prison sentence.
Teresa and Joe pleaded guilty to multiple charges of fraud in 2014. The mother of four was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, and began her sentence in January 2015, but was released early in December that same year. She told ET in an exclusive interview last October that she and Joe planned to fight his deportation order.
During a January taping for the season 9 reunion of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, however, Teresa told her castmates that her marriage to Joe won't last if he ends up getting deported.
"We'd go our separate ways," she said.
See more in the video below.
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