‘RHONJ’ Star Teresa Giudice’s Husband Joe Allowed to Stay in US Amid Deportation Battle

Joe Giudice isn’t going anywhere — yet. The Real Housewives of New Jersey star was granted permission to continue living in the U.S. amid his ongoing deportation battle to Italy, according to court documents obtained by The Blast.

“The petitioner’s motion for a stay of removal is granted. The requirements for granting a stay have been satisfied. … The temporary stay of removal previously granted is vacated as no longer necessary,” the documents state. “Petitioner’s unopposed motions to seal Exhibit C to the Moseley Declaration and to amend/correct his stay motion are granted.”

Giudice’s attorney told PEOPLE that Teresa Giudice‘s husband’s legal team is “grateful that the Court has granted the stay. Joe looks forward to continuing this fight to the very end. There is nothing more important to him than returning home to his wife and kids.”

The news comes a few weeks after Giudice’s deportation was temporarily delayed at the end of April, according to court documents obtained by The Blast.

“This order is issued in accordance with the Standing Order of the Court dated August 8, 2015,” the documents state. “The foregoing motion is temporarily granted; removal is stayed until such time as the Court can consider the motion for stay of removal.”

Both Joe and Teresa Giudice were indicted in 2013 when they were accused of hiding their fortune in a bankruptcy filing. Joe, 47, was also accused of failing to file tax returns between 2004 and 2008.

Teresa, 47, was released from federal prison in 2015 after serving 11 months of a 15-month fraud sentence. Joe was released in March 2018 after completing a 41-month sentence for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud.

The father of four — who shares daughters Gia, 18, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 14, and Audriana, 10, with Teresa — has since been awaiting his fate at a facility in western Pennsylvania that houses immigration detainees.

The Italy native never obtained American citizenship despite having lived in the United States since he was a child, and according to U.S. law, immigrants can be deported if they are convicted of “a crime of moral turpitude” or an “aggravated felony.”

While Joe and his family have been publicly asking President Donald Trump to pardon him and spare him deportation, neither Trump nor the White House press team have commented on the case. A source familiar with the administration’s thinking told PEOPLE that the pardon request is not on their radar.

“This has not reached the White House,” the source said in early May. “If it was worth it on the merits, this would be something, but just because [the Giudice family] is asking…”

“Thousands of people have through different means tried to bring different cases” to the White House, the source said, adding, “The vast majority of them just don’t warrant the decision.”

Teresa’s brother, Joe Gorga, told Us Weekly earlier this month that Teresa and Joe’s daughters are “all suffering very much.”

In April, Gia started a Change.org petition to keep her father in the country, with the petition currently receiving over 92,000 signatures with a goal of 150,000. In it, Gia begs Trump to stop Joe’s deportation, writing that her father “has resided in New Jersey his entire life.”

“He knows nothing of Italian culture, laws, societal norms, he has no immediate family and will not be able to secure work in this foreign land,” she wrote. “My father is not a danger to society, he is a warm loving man and I beg you sign our petition to give my father a second chance at being part of our lives and giving back to the community we live in once again.”