RHONJ's Teresa Giudice's Dad Slams Joe for Not Becoming a U.S. Citizen: 'He Gotta Blame Himself'
Teresa Giudice‘s father had some strong words for her husband Joe Giudice on Wednesday’s Real Housewives of New Jersey.
After a tense speakerphone conversation between Teresa, 47, and Joe, 49, Giacinto Gorga — Teresa and Joe Gorga’s dad — slammed his son-in-law for never becoming a U.S. citizen.
“I slap your husband. He never did nothing right, he did everything wrong!” said Giacinto, who was born in Italy.
“Six times I told him, ‘Go make a citizen.’ ‘Yeah yeah, I’ll go’ — he never did,” Giacinto said. “He gotta blame himself.”
Joe was calling from a high-security correctional center in Pennsylvania, operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He had been transferred to there in March after completing his 41-month jail sentence for mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud — a decision he made so that he could fight out the U.S. government’s deportation ruling.
Last October, a ruling was made that Joe would have to leave the country. As Teresa previously explained in the RHONJ season 10 premiere, Joe was born in Italy and lived there for a year before his parents relocated to America. Because he never obtained American citizenship, U.S. law states immigrants can be deported if they are convicted of “a crime of moral turpitude” or an “aggravated felony.”
The conditions at the ICE facility, Joe had said on RHONJ, were much more demanding than the low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, where he had spent much of his time behind bars.
Among the changes was the fact that visitors were not allowed physical contact with Joe, meaning that his daughters — Gia, 18, Gabriella, 15, Milania, 13, and Audriana, 10 — would all have to talk to their father from behind a panel of glass.
That left Joe feeling he didn’t even want to have his daughters visit, something he admitted to them earlier this season.
It also left Joe feeling frustrated.
Asked on Wednesday if he was feeling okay, he lamented to Teresa, “Am I okay? I’m going on 38 months in this crap!”
“They want to separate us now, we’re married 20 years. We got four kids, alright? They want to destroy four kids,” Joe said. “I’m here now and I’m getting deported and that’s all there is to it. It’s over.”
“I don’t see anybody in here walking out. They’re all getting deported,” Joe said. “I’m over it. I’d rather be out and see you while I can than be sitting in this friggin’ junk hole. At this point, I don’t care where the hell I go. … I’m going to fight it out a little while later, and then I’m done. That’s it.”
Teresa did her best to help Joe feel supported, but even she admitted there was only so much she could do.
“The phone calls are just getting very draining,” she said. “I can’t take all this drama.”
Later, she told audiences that she understood Joe’s pain but felt as though he needed to take responsibility for his actions and continue to fight.
“We don’t want him to suffer but he’s put us through all this, so he needs to sit there now as long as it takes and fight, especially for his daughters,” Teresa said.
RELATED: All of the Photos from the Giudice Family’s Trip to Visit Joe Giudice in Italy
Joe has since left the ICE facility, moving to Italy to earn money for his family while he awaits the decision of his final deportation appeal.
Teresa and the girls have gone to visit him, as has Giacinto.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Teresa asked for prayers for her father, telling her followers on Instagram that she was taking him to the hospital. She’s yet to provide an update on how he feels.
The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Wednesdays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
