The husband of a 46-year-old suburban Detroit woman says her family was not given the opportunity to say goodbye before she was deported.

Pete Gojcaj (GOY'-cheh-vihtz) of Troy tells the Detroit Free Press that Cile Precetaj (seel pruh-SHEHT'-eye) telephoned him at 4 a.m. Thursday from Germany as she and two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were headed to her native Albania.

Precetaj has no criminal background and had been seeking asylum in the U.S. since 2000. She was arrested April 26 during a routine visit to the ICE office in Detroit and taken to a southern Michigan jail.

The newspaper says ICE spokesman Khallid Walls declined to comment Wednesday, but said families typically are notified before a deportation.

The couple's U.S.-born children are ages 16, 10 and 8 years old.