Community raises $315K for NJ restaurant owners arrested by ICE

🔲 NJ couple arrested by ICE
🔲 Arrived on religious worker visa
🔲 Wife remains detained, funds raised

A New Jersey family who arrived in the country 17 years ago has been caught up in an immigration bust.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement administratively arrested Turkish citizens Emine and Celal Emanet in Haddon Township on Feb. 25.

Roughly a week later, Emine Emanet remained in ICE custody while Celal Emanet was released while monitored under an alternative program, pending removal proceedings.

A GoFundMe campaign setup to contribute to the family’s legal expenses had raised more than $315,000 as of Monday.

The Emanets moved to the U.S. from Turkey in 2008 on an R1 visa, 6ABC Action News and NBC 10 reported.

“Ministers and non-ministers in religious vocations and occupations may come to the US temporarily for the purpose of performing religious work,” under R-1 nonimmigrant religious workers status, according to Citizen and Immigration Services.

To qualify, one must have been a member of a religious denomination having a bona fide nonprofit religious organization in the United States for at least two years immediately before filing the petition.

R-1 status can be granted for an initial period of admission for up to 30 months and further extensions for up to an additional 30 months.

A complete stay in the U.S. under R-1 classification cannot go beyond five years.

“We only count time spent physically in the United States in valid R-1 status toward the maximum period of stay,” according to the Citizen and Immigration Services website.

Celal Emanet applied for a green card before the R-1 visa expired, the same reports said. His application was denied three times.

Green card approval can range from months to several years, depending on the grounds for legal residency that an applicant is seeking.

“As with any noncitizen in the United States without lawful status, ICE officers make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis to focus on the greatest threats to homeland security in a professional and responsible manner informed by their experience as law enforcement officers,” an ICE spokesperson said regarding the Emanet case.

No further details were given, citing the active investigation.

The family has owned and operated Jersey Kebab, a Mediterranean restaurant across from the Haddon Township Municipality and Police building, for the past five years.

Emine Emanet has been held at an ICE detention facility in Elizabeth, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement.

The Emanets have four children, including a 15-year-old son with autism, as well as a daughter-in-law and four grandchildren, according to the GoFundMe campaign.

"While we all agree that the most violent criminals who are here illegally should be removed from our country, the Emanet family does not meet this standard," Assembly members Lou Greenwald and Melinda Kane, D-Camden, jointly said in a written release.

"On the contrary, they embody everything we should celebrate in the American Dream. The Emanet family came to this country legally on a religious visa, built a thriving business, and provided for their family."

Camden County Board of Commissioners Director Louis Cappelli Jr. last week slammed the case as "a personal attack" on every resident.

He said that the Emanets have been waiting for a clarification of their immigration status since 2016.

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