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Mother Of 3 Given 24-Hour Deportation Notice

TROY (WWJ) - A deadline is fast-approaching for metro Detroit mother who has been told she has to leave the country.

Forty-year-old Cile Precetaj, an illegal Albanian immigrant with three American children, has until 10:30 a.m. Tuesday to report to Detroit Metro Airport, according to the deportation notice she received early Monday morning.

Precetaj has been in the U.S. since 2000. She entered Michigan illegally via Canada and sought asylum, saying she was escaping an abusive fiancé and what she called a "criminal environment." Despite her appeal, an immigration judge denied her request in a decision that was reaffirmed by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2008.

Still, Precetaj made a life for herself in America, knowing all the while the threat of deportation was looming. She was kept under supervision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ordered to wear a tether and report to officials monthly.

Precetaj eventually married and had three children, all of whom she's taking back to Albania. After receiving the deportation notice, Precetaj and her husband, Pjetero Gojcevic, pulled the children out of school and told them they would be leaving life as they know it behind.

Gojcevic told the Detroit Free Press his wife must take the children because he can't afford to care for them on his own.

"She's got no choice. She can't leave them," he said. "Let her stay with her children and raise them in a country that they know."

The U.S. Department of Immigrations, Customs and Enforcement said it will comment on the case later Tuesday.

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