Immigration agents detained the co-owner of three restaurants in Lackawanna County’s North Pocono region last week, family members said Monday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Nasario Damian (Contreras), 45, a native of Mexico, on Tuesday outside Isabella’s Eatery in Jefferson Twp., his son, Erik Arceno, said.
Arceno, 22, said he got a call that day informing him of the arrest and rushed to Isabella’s.
“When I got there, I was looking for him. He wasn't in there, and one of the waitresses came out and told me what had happened,” Arceno said. “So, he was coming in to open the restaurant, and he was preparing the stuff like normal, like a regular day, and he went out to grab some soup. He exited the restaurant, and that's when they detained him and handcuffed him.”
Deportation worries
Arceno, an Army reservist, said he spoke to his father later at the Pike County Correctional Facility. The county facility is one of the Pennsylvania prisons ICE uses to hold suspected undocumented immigrants. Damian Contreras was registered as an inmate at 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, online records show.
His father is worried about potential deportation but is doing “the best he can do being in jail,” Arceno said.
“My dad was always telling me that he's a strong guy,” he said.
An ICE spokesman could not immediately confirm the arrest, but family members did and the inmate-tracking site Vinelink lists him in custody.
Vinelink lists Arceno’s father as Nasario Damian Contreras, but a 2019 Scranton Times-Tribune newspaper story referred to him as Nasario Damian.
Damian owns three eateries
He and his girlfriend, Mayte Vargas, co-own Isabella’s, Damian’s Eatery in Clifton Township, and Leonor’s Eatery in Moscow, Vargas said in an interview Monday. The couple are parents of a 6-month-old boy. Vargas said many call him Damian because they don't know how to say his first name.
Many North Pocono residents flooded Facebook with messages of support and urged others to sign notarized letters backing Damian.
The letters are meant to “attest to Damian’s character and that he is a respected business owner, devoted community member and generous philanthropist,” one woman wrote. More than 400 people signed letters, Arceno said.
“It (the arrest) was something that we weren't planning on telling everyone ... kind of try to keep the restaurants moving without drawing too much attention,” he said. “At the end of the day, it was really what helped us the most. We invited a few people to make cards (letters) for him for his case. And then the whole town showed up, which is amazing. I never expected it to be really close like that. I can’t put it into words, really.”
A hard-working immigrant
Arceno said his father came to the United States at age 17 to help his grandfather and later gained legal status. Vargas said his work permit was lapsing, but a lawyer failed to let him know soon enough. A second lawyer did nothing to help, so the family is working with a new lawyer to straighten out his immigration status, Vargas said.
“So, we just hired a lawyer on Friday. So, we're working like so hard trying to get everything going and open, reopen his case,” Vargas said.
Arceno said his father began working at a young age in Mexico and met his mother after arriving in the United States.
“And he continued to work to provide for me and my brother, but he ended up in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Around when I was five, my mom and him split.”
His father always works hard, he said.
“He's a good, good man,” he said. “He's always a hard worker. He's always telling me to keep working, and that's what I do, you know? We try to do right by him.”
Starting their own place
Vargas said she met Damian when both worked at Brick Oven Pizzeria in South Scranton more than six years ago. He had worked many years in New York City restaurants, she said.
After a year at Brick Oven, they decided to open their own restaurant in 2019.
“That’s when we realized that we were working so much for someone else,” Vargas said. “And then we decided to become partners, and we opened our first place, which is Leonor’s.”
Leonor’s is named after her mother, she said. Isabella’s, their second restaurant, is named after
Damian’s mother. Vargas manages hiring, paperwork and payroll while Damian does most of the cooking.
A self-taught cook
He learned how to cook through years of restaurant experience.
“He started from the bottom. Like everyone else, he learned,” Vargas said. “He discovered that that's his thing, the cooking. He loves to cook.”
Damian enjoys dining at other restaurants, she said.
“He likes to eat. He likes to go out to different places,” Vargas said. “He’s always trying different restaurants. He likes to get new ideas all the time.”
He likes to help
He also helps other restaurant owners when equipment breaks down.
“He loves to help people,” Vargas said. “We were so blessed from the community, like everyone was trying to support us,” she said. “I think we did pretty good for (these) six years already.”
Vargas said she’s trying to keep her spirits up.
“It's hard,” she said. “I can't imagine myself like me, myself with three restaurants (and) we have the baby.”
