Why RHONJ's Teresa and Joe Giudice Didn't Ask Donald Trump to Pardon Them for Their Crimes

As Joe Giudice tries to his deportation order and return to his family in the United States, he has a powerful potential ally: President Donald Trump.

But even though his wife Teresa Giudice has considered the president a friend since her stint on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, the couple confirmed on Sunday night that they have never reached out asking for assistance or a pardon.

“He has so much on his plate, that guy,” Joe, 49, said during their special Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen sit-down. “Even if he could maybe try to do something, I don’t know if he would get criticized. I don’t know what they would do to him.”

RELATED: RHONJ‘s Teresa & Joe Giudice Break Their Silence: Biggest Bombshells from Andy Cohen’s Interview

“Andy, with the whole immigration thing that’s going on, that he’s fighting for. I would never do that to the president,” Teresa, 46, added, alluding to Trump’s controversial immigration policy proposals such as building a border wall with Mexico and curbing family-based migration.

Eventually, though, Teresa said she’d hope to be pardoned and allowed to vote again.

“I hate to predict what I’m going to do in the future, but we’ll see. You never know,” she said. “I would love to be pardoned.”

Teresa served a little over 11 months in prison for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud and was released on Dec. 23, 2015; Joe finished a 41-month sentence for the same crimes in March but was sent to an ICE detention center because he is not a U.S. citizen. A judge ruled to deport him to his native Italy, which he’s been trying to appeal since leaving prison. He moved to Italy earlier this month and is still fighting to come home.

In November 2018, Teresa said she would “love” to speak with Trump while on WWHL.

“I would love to speak to him if he would like to call me,” she said. “I haven’t, but I said, if he wants to speak to me, I would love it.”

And in April, their 18-year-old daughter Gia started a petition begging Trump to intervene in Joe’s deportation. But a source familiar with the administration’s thinking told PEOPLE in May that the pardon request was not on their radar.

“This has not reached the White House,” said the source, who noted that publicity alone does not carry a pardon request to Trump’s desk. “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 explained. “The vast majority of them just don’t warrant the decision.”

Season 10 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey premieres Nov. 6 (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.