{"id":32174,"date":"2026-09-26T07:38:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T07:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/32174\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T07:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T07:38:34","slug":"owner-of-zenas-restaurant-in-collingswood-nj-held-by-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/32174\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of Zena\u2019s restaurant in Collingswood NJ held by ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingswood rallies around Iemad Saifo<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Muhammed Emanet, the owner\u2019s son, said the Saifo family came at the peak of the dinner rush.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see them come in, and they looked very distressed,\u201d Emanet said. \u201cImmediately they were like, \u2018Mohammed, can we talk to you about something private?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Emanet took the Saifo family to the restaurant\u2019s party room to discuss what happened to their father.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I heard that, my jaw dropped,\u201d Emanet added. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it because their father\u2019s an elderly man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zena Saifo said Emanet was ready to support the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the start, he was so kind, so supportive,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in communication every single day; he\u2019s asked what we needed, he\u2019s connected us with folks in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Heart-shapedHeart-shaped notes of support for the Saifo family are posted on the windows of Zena\u2019s American Mediterranean Cuisine, a Collingswood, New Jersey restaurant owned by Iemad Saifo, who was arrested by federal immigration officers. (P. Kenneth Burns\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s American Mediterranean Cuisine, named for his daughter.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cheart-wrenching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to read the news and hear the stories; it\u2019s entirely another to see hard-working members of your own community \u2026 targeted in this way,\u201d she wrote in an email, adding that Iemad Saifo\u2019s restaurant has provided stability to a section of Collingswood.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has trusted Collingswood to host his business and educate his children, and we\u2019re doing all we can to repay that by supporting him and his family during this most trying time,\u201d the mayor added.<\/p>\n

Zena Saifo said the rest of her family \u2014 her mom and four younger brothers \u2014 have legal status but are concerned about their future amid the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolks 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,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much unknown about the future, and we are seeing these huge crackdowns on immigrants and people that have done what they\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s son, said the Saifo family came at the peak of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[27777,27778,3138,3136,3134,3137,3135,10500,4755],"class_list":["post-32174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-jersey","tag-collingswood","tag-ice-raids","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-jersey-dining","tag-new-jersey-food","tag-new-jersey-grocery-stores","tag-new-jersey-restaurants","tag-trump-impact","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117336205201577135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}