‘RHONJ’: Inside Gia Giudice’s ‘Goal’ to Have Dad Joe Giudice’s Immigration Status ‘Reevaluated’
Teresa and Joe Giudice have been fixtures on The Real Housewives of New Jersey for years, and their four children have grown up in front of cameras. Their eldest child, Gia, is preparing to graduate college with a degree in criminal justice and wants to become a lawyer. One case she’s already been working on is that of her father’s.
Joe Giudice was deported after serving his prison sentence
In October 2014, Teresa and Joe Giudice were sentenced to spend time in prison for their involvement in bankruptcy fraud. Teresa went to prison first, serving her sentence from January to December of 2015. Her husband went in to serve his sentence in March 2016.
Joe was released from prison in March 2019. But he didn’t get to go back to his family, as Teresa did. A judge ordered that Joe be deported back to his native Italy upon release.
He’s been living out of the country ever since. In 2021, he moved to the Bahamas to be closer to his family.
Gia Giudice wants to help her father Joe Giudice’s immigration case
Though Joe gets to see his children every now and then, his inability to be in the country has weighed heavy on the family, including daughter Gia. The senior at Rutgers University is earning a degree in criminal justice and has started working at an immigration law firm to get experience.
Gia opened up about her father’s case and her work to get him back in the US in a February 2023 interview with Page Six.
“We have such a big family, and no matter what the situation is, gathering all of us to go visit him [is hard]. Even though he did move to the Bahamas [in 2021] for us, for him to be closer, for the flight to be easier … like, plane tickets are still crazy expensive, and especially when everybody has off around the holidays [and] the airlines jump the prices up,” she said.
“It is hard for everybody to see him, rather than just one person being able to come here, like during holidays or birthdays, would just be like a dream come true,” she continued, adding that he was never “a flight risk” or “a threat to society.”
“I just feel like that if that whole aspect of it can get reevaluated, that maybe he could have a chance of coming back temporarily here and there,” she wished.
Gia Giudice has a matching tattoo with her father Joe
Even though she may be far away from her father, Gia keeps him close to her heart — figuratively and literally. The 22-year-old has a matching tattoo with her father to remind her of him whenever she needs it.
“I have a little bird, and [my dad] has [a matching] eagle on his chest. Just means we can fly to each other whenever we want, and we are always a flight away,” Gia explained in a May 2020 Instagram post, according to Bravo’s Style & Living.
