Bacliff, Texas (CNN) -- Sitting on their front porch in this Houston suburb, Edmond Demiraj and his family seem the picture of a contented family. 

But the Department of Justice now wants to upend the family: threatening to deport his wife and 19-year-old son back to their native Albania, even though he says federal prosecutors a decade ago promised him help and a Green Card in exchange for Edmond's promised testimony in a human smuggling case against a fellow Albanian immigrant. For the Demiraj family, they believe it will mean great harm, even death, for those deported. 

A decade ago, Edmond Demiraj (pronounced: dem-EAR-eye) was himself an illegal immigrant. He told CNN he had walked across the U.S. border from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas without any paperwork. He found work as a painter, he says, with a fellow Albanian named Bill Bedini. 

Not long afterwards, the Justice Department indicted Bedini, accusing him and others of running a human smuggling ring, bringing illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States. Demiraj was named in the original indictment but charges against him were later dropped. 

Attorneys for the Justice Department based in Houston wanted Demiraj to testify against Bedini. In exchange, Demiraj told CNN that prosecutors promised him and his family protection and promised him a Green Card, which would lead to citizenship. The offer, he says, was verbal and not on paper. 

"I'm ready to work for the U.S. government, whatever they need from me," Demiraj told CNN. 

But Bedini entered a plea of not guilty, was granted bail and soon fled to Albania, according to the U.S. Marshal's office in Houston. Federal prosecutors didn't need Demiraj's testimony and handed him over to immigration officials, who quickly deported him as well. 
When did he come here?
A decade ago