It is not clear if the FBI knew that Pietro DeLuca had fled Italy after his break with the Fascists made his life dangerous there, but they apprehended him after Pearl Harbor and detained him on Ellis Island. Mrs. DeLuca wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to plead his case, after which DeLuca was paroled on the condition that he study to become an American citizen. His son, Joe, was held hostage in Italy until 1946 when he joined his family in the U.S.