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.
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Edmond Demiraj says he is still ready to help prosecutors
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The Justice Department wants to deport his wife and son
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He was almost killed when sent back to Albania
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He feels his family will be killed if they go back
"I'm ready to work for the @placeholder government, whatever they need from me," Demiraj told CNN.