The co-owner of three restaurants in Lackawanna County’s North Pocono region was detained by immigration officers last week, family members claimed Monday.
Nasario Damian (Contreras), 45, a Mexican national, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside Isabella’s Eatery in Jefferson Township on Tuesday, according to his son, Erik Arceno.
Arceno, 22, said he received a call that day telling him of the arrest and immediately 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 with his father later at Pike County Correctional Facility. ICE holds suspected unauthorized immigrants at the county facility in Pennsylvania. Damian Contreras was recorded as an inmate at 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday, according to online records.
Arceno’s father is worried about deportation but is trying to do “the best he can while in jail.”
“My dad was always telling me that he’s a strong guy,” he said.
An ICE spokeswoman could not immediately confirm the detention, but family members did, and Vinelink, an inmate-tracking website, has him in prison.
Arceno’s father is listed as Nasario Damian Contreras on Vinelink; however, he was referred to as Nasario Damian in a 2019 Scranton Times-Tribune article.
Damian owns three eateries
In an interview on Monday, he revealed that he and his girlfriend, Mayte Vargas, own Isabella’s, Damian’s Eatery in Clifton Township, and Leonor’s Eatery in Moscow. The couple has a six-month-old child. According to Vargas, many people nickname him Damian since they don’t know how to pronounce his first name.
Many North Pocono locals expressed their support on Facebook and encouraged others to sign notarized papers supporting Damian.
The letters are supposed to “attest to Damian’s character and that he is a respected business owner, devoted community member, and generous philanthropist,” according to one woman. Arceno reported that about 400 persons signed letters.
“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
According to Arceno, his father immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 to support his grandfather and eventually obtained legal status. Vargas asserted that his lawyer failed to notify him promptly when his work permit was about to expire. A second counsel was ineffective; therefore, the family is seeking a new lawyer to resolve his immigration status, according to Vargas.
“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.
According to Arceno, his father started working at a young age in Mexico and met his mother after moving to 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 is usually hardworking, he stated.
“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 over six years ago while working at Brick Oven Pizzeria in South Scranton. She mentioned he had worked in New York City restaurants for many years.
After a year at Brick Oven, they decided to launch 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 named it after her mother, she explained. Their second establishment, Isabella’s, is named after Damian’s mother. Vargas handles hiring, paperwork, and payroll, and Damian does most of the cooking.
A self-taught cook
He learned how to cook after years of restaurant work.
“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 eating at other restaurants, she says.
“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 assists other restaurant owners when equipment malfunctions.
“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 stated that she is trying to be positive.
“It’s hard,” she said. “I can’t imagine myself like me, myself with three restaurants (and) we have the baby.”
