Man lives illegally in US since 2001, now won't leave Birmingham home

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (WJBK) - There are terrible stories of undocumented immigrants torn from their families. People who didn't even know they were illegal have been deported. Then there's this guy - who has been in America, illegally, since 2001. He's still raising hell, 16 years after a court told him to leave.

Kledi Pllumaj is a bad guy. How bad? Deborah (last name withheld) says he's threatened her and she's scared. She doesn't know what he's capable of doing.

Here's the thing: his story isn't new! Rob Wolchek put him in the Hall of Shame ten years ago! In 2008, people said he was threatening them and cheating them.

Ten years later, he's doing it again. Here's the other thing: he's not even supposed to be in the United States.

"He's undocumented and he's illegal. He was ordered four times to leave the country. The last time was 2012 and he's still here," Deborah said.

He is still here and using American bankruptcy laws to write off hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt that he racked up. He's getting sued for breaking leases. He's had judgment filed against him for tens of thousands of dollars. Deborah is Kledi's landlord and she says he and his wife, Aurora, are using the American court system to cheat her out of rent.

"I don't want another person to get stuck with someone like this - like I've been stuck," Deborah said.

In December 2016, Deborah says Kledi posed as a real estate agent with a client who wanted to rent her Birmingham home.

"I thought I was dealing with a realtor. In the end, I found out he was the renter."

Deborah had lived in the house but was transferred to California for work. She rented the furnished home to Kledi and his family for $2,500 a month.

On January 1, 2017, they moved in. The immediately started making "home improvements" like tearing the carpeting off of the stairs. By January 4th, Deborah was sending Kledi emails asking him to stop:

"You need to request in writing authorization to do any repairs or modifications to the property.....You are not allowed to do any of these things or it is grounds for eviction."

He responded:

"I will put liens on your house period! My attorney is so happy to send you to court because you don't stay in your business!!!!"

This is all just five days after the family moved in. By January 21st, Kledi was claiming he now owned the house.

Then he followed through his promise and filed almost $20,000 in liens on Deborah's property. he claimed he fixed things that she says weren't broken.

"He fixed the furnace, he fixed the air conditioning, he fixed the ventilation system..." she said. "He has no documentation at all. And he never got approval."

Deborah sued Kledi and his wife aurora. She says she hasn't received rent money since January of this year.

But get this! Kledi and his wife have countersued claiming the house has caused them physical and emotional distress and anguish. Humiliation and mortification. Sleeplessness and anxiety.

The suit and counter suit go on jury trial next month.

So if he claims it’s such a horrible place – then why hasn’t he moved? That question is what the US government has said about Kledi and his wife for years.

Here are the facts from documents filed in federal court: “Pllumaj entered the United States on or around September 3, 2001 without being admitted or paroled by an immigration officer."

In "October of 2002 the INS commenced removal proceedings against Pllumaj and her husband Kledi Pllumaj."

Aurora wanted asylum, claiming she’d been attacked in her home country of Albania for her involvement in a political group. 

However, in 2008 an immigration judge determined "Pllumaj was not credible, noting internal inconsistencies in her testimony...".

Both Kledi and Aurora were told to leave the US. They didn't.

Instead, Rob Wolchek inducted him into the Hall of Shame for working as unlicensed contractor with a fake name: Gino.

Gino was running a company called Italia remodeling. Gino, aka Kledi, is not Italian – he’s Albanian – but that wasn’t the problem. No, what happened was his customers claimed he was taking their money and not completing jobs. If they complained, he pulled them.

Then, Kledi was billing himself as a bad boy boxer and called himself Crazy G. He was no champ. The chump was running boxing and kickboxing gyms apparently right into the ground.

Then he started a YouTube channel, advertising a property management company and that’s how he managed himself into Deborah’s rental property in Birmingham.

“He's rude. He's obnoxious. He’s called me an idiot and all kinds of things,” Deborah says.

We contacted immigration service about Kledi as we were working on this story. We were planning on confronting him last week and guess what happened. 

ICE picked him up. He's being detained at the Calhoun county jail.     

ICE won't comment on specific cases but said “they no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”

Kledi's wife is still here living in Deborah's house with their four kids. She talked on the phone for this story and said she has put two months of rent money in an escrow account. Deborah says that money is held by the court and the Pllumajs actually owe four months of back rent.

Deborah says she wants the family of her house.