Jersey Kebab owner arrested by ICE returns to her restaurant after release from detention: ‘This is like my home’

The last time Emine Emanet was at her Haddon Township restaurant, she was taken away in handcuffs by ICE agents.

When she returned on Thursday, she was met by windows covered in colorful paper hearts, by bright flowers, and by the abiding affection of her neighbors.

Her husband, Celal Emanet, had told her about the outpouring, but on seeing it in person after two weeks and a day inside a stark New Jersey immigrant-detention center, Emine seemed taken aback.

News reporters who gathered at the front door of the Jersey Kebab eatery called on her to speak.

“The same God created us,” Emine Emanet said to friends and to TV cameras, her words translated from Turkish by her husband. “God created us to love each other, not to fight each other.”

A few minutes later, Emanet stepped inside the small corner business, its interior decorated with hand-picked fabrics and goods from the family’s native Turkey. She took time to look around, to bathe in the realization that she was truly back. She noticed that some of the plants had died in her absence.

“This is like my home,” she said. “I’m so happy.”

On Feb. 25, ICE agents arrived at the restaurant at midmorning and arrested the couple. Emine Emanet, 47, who runs the kitchen, was jailed at the detention center in Elizabeth, N.J. Her husband, 51, was fitted with an electronic ankle monitor and released.

They came legally to the United States in 2008, but fell out of status when their visas expired, meaning they have no authority to stay in the country.

On Thursday, less than 24 hours after Emine’s release from detention on bond, the honks of passing cars broke the midweek quiet of Haddon Avenue. The couple stood outside in the sunshine, greeting friends and answering questions about their ordeal.

“We love you!” one man shouted from his car window, stopping in traffic to wave. “Welcome home!”

A group of people cheered and applauded from the corner. A woman walked up and handed Emine Emanet a bouquet.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” the woman said.

Celal Emanet looked like he had shed 10 years overnight.

He said the restaurant, closed since the couple was arrested, would reopen March 30, immediately after the end of Ramadan, the sacred Muslim month of fasting, prayer and reflection. All are welcome to a celebration on that date, he said.

“I told her,” he said, told her about the thousands of texts and messages and donations that arrived in support of the Turkish couple. But a verbal explanation, he noted, was nothing like seeing it in person.

A locally organized GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $327,000 from around the world for the family’s legal defense, living expenses, and lost income.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s effort to deport the couple is proceeding.

Their cases are separate, with Celal Emanet scheduled for an immigration hearing on May 27. Their attorney, Joseph Best of Best Law Associates LLC, is attempting to combine the cases and have them heard together.

The lawyer called the arrests and confinement needless and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

“This entire incident could have been avoided simply by mailing a notice to appear in immigration court to our clients,” Best said shortly after Emanet was released from detention on Wednesday.

It remains unclear why Emine Emanet was confined and her husband freed, given the Cherry Hill couple’s similar circumstances.

Celal Emanet entered the country on an R-1 visa, a type of visa that can be granted to ministers or religious leaders, with his wife what is known as the derivative, able to apply for her own visa based on the principal’s application.

Emine Emanet’s release came Wednesday, the day after a hearing at the detention center where a federal immigration judge ruled she could be freed on $7,500 bond.

Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials in New Jersey did not comment on Emanet’s release from custody. The agency earlier issued a statement saying it makes enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis “to focus on the greatest threats to homeland security.”

The agency says it exercises its discretion in making custody decisions, and that those decisions are based on the totality of circumstances — primarily the potential risk of flight, threat to national security, and risk to public safety.

Emine Emanet said Thursday that being in detention was stressful, for her and others held there. Many people around her were upset and crying. She spent her time praying, reading, and exercising.

The family follows Halal, eating only food that complies with Islamic dietary laws, and none was available in jail, she said. She ate “fake chicken,” she said, vegetables contorted to look like meat.

“Amazing,” she said, when asked how she felt now, adding that she wanted to express her gratitude to people who have supported the family. “Thank you so much.”