STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – A Sterling Heights woman and mother of three is fighting to stay in the country after she was detained Thursday.
According to her family, Cile Precetaj, 46, goes to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office on Mt. Elliot in Detroit for her monthly check-ins. She normally brings her children with her, but she didn't Thursday and was detained.
She was taken to a hospital for an anxiety attack she suffered before being transported to the St. Clair County jail.
Precetaj has lived in the United States for 18 years, but if deported, she will go to Albania. She also faced a deportation scare in 2013, but she was saved by an executive order in 2014.
Her family says that Precetaj has tried to become a legal citizen since she came to the U.S. in 2018. Her family and attorney also say that she hasn't committed any crimes since she came to the country undocumented.
"If we added up all the money we have spent in attorney fees, it's easily a quarter of a million dollars with everybody promising, and in the end I'm right here with three crying children and a crying mother," her husband, Peter Pjetrogojcevic, said. "They say well, she broke the law; she came in here illegally and she overstayed. I think there's a bigger law being broken with breaking up a family."
An ICE spokesperson said there would be a response from the agency regarding the situation Friday.