Owner of Zena’s restaurant in Collingswood NJ held by ICE

Collingswood rallies around Iemad Saifo

Later that day, Zena Saifo and her family went to Jersey Kebab, which opened in Collingswood in the last year. The family that owns the restaurant has been fighting off deportation for more than a year.

Muhammed Emanet, the owner’s son, said the Saifo family came at the peak of the dinner rush.

“I see them come in, and they looked very distressed,” Emanet said. “Immediately they were like, ‘Mohammed, can we talk to you about something private?’”

Emanet took the Saifo family to the restaurant’s party room to discuss what happened to their father.

“As I heard that, my jaw dropped,” Emanet added. “I couldn’t believe it because their father’s an elderly man.”

Zena Saifo said Emanet was ready to support the family.

“From the start, he was so kind, so supportive,” she said. “We’ve been in communication every single day; he’s asked what we needed, he’s connected us with folks in the community.”

Heart-shaped notes of support for the Saifo family are posted on the windows of Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine, a Collingswood, New Jersey restaurant owned by Iemad Saifo, who was arrested by federal immigration officers. (P. Kenneth Burns/WHYY)

The Collingswood community has also stood behind the Saifo family. A letter-writing campaign and a fundraiser to pay for legal fees have been organized. Cooper River Indivisible, a grassroots community group, posted heart-shaped support notes on the window of the restaurant Iemad Saifo opened in 2011, Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine, named for his daughter.

Collingswood Mayor Daniela Solano-Ward said the borough is trying to follow best practices when collecting statements on behalf of the family, making sure they are notarized and turned over to the family. She called the situation “heart-wrenching.”

“It’s one thing to read the news and hear the stories; it’s entirely another to see hard-working members of your own community … targeted in this way,” she wrote in an email, adding that Iemad Saifo’s restaurant has provided stability to a section of Collingswood.

“He has trusted Collingswood to host his business and educate his children, and we’re doing all we can to repay that by supporting him and his family during this most trying time,” the mayor added.

Zena Saifo said the rest of her family — her mom and four younger brothers — have legal status but are concerned about their future amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

“Folks in this community, like longtime members who are born in the U.S., who grew up here, have been telling me no one is excluded from these policies at this point,” she said. “There’s so much unknown about the future, and we are seeing these huge crackdowns on immigrants and people that have done what they’re supposed to do.”