Owner of Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine in Collingswood released on bond from ICE detention

Iemad Saifo, the 65-year-old owner of Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine in Collingswood, has been released after spending two weeks in ICE detention at Delaney Hall in Newark, N.J.

Saifo emigrated to the United States from Syria in 2002 on a business visa and later sought asylum after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. He was detained during a routine ICE check-in July 31.

Saifo is the primary caregiver for his 12-year-old son, who has autism. The elder Saifo also has spasmodic dysphonia, a rare condition that makes it difficult for him to speak, as well as chronic kidney disease.

Dozens of Collingswood-area community members wrote letters and signed a petition urging the court to keep him in South Jersey with his family.

As President Donald Trump pushes his mass deportation agenda, routine check-ins have become increasingly risky for immigrants. Immigration advocates say many of those who have been arrested at ICE check-ins were simply following government protocols.

Last week, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced her office was investigating Delaney Hall after multiple detainees died there during the last year, raising concerns about the facility’s conditions and medical negligence. The privately operated detention center under contract with ICE has been the scene of fierce protests and political fights between the Trump administration and Democrats since its May 2025 reopening.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that Iemad Saifo was arrested both because he does not have permanent status and because of a 2018 case in which he was indicted and found guilty of witness tampering and sentenced to five years’ probation.

“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson wrote. “Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.”

One of Saifo’s attorneys, Fiona Powell, credited the 150 notarized letters from community members testifying to his character with helping secure his release.

“This was an outpouring of community support like I’ve never seen before,” she said.

Those letters were authored last weekend during an event that friends, family, and community organizers hosted at his restaurant.

Many in South Jersey know Iemad Saifo from his restaurant, which opened in 2011, and from the nearly 10 years he previously spent working at a local 7-Eleven, said his 27-year-old daughter, Zena Saifo, for whom the restaurant is named.

Zena Saifo said she, her mother, and one of her brothers were granted asylum after the war began. Her father never heard back from the Department of Homeland Security on his asylum application, she said, so he later applied for permanent residency through his younger son, who was born in the United States.

“He’s always willing to help people, to give,” Zena Saifo said of her father. “People are really enraged and disgusted by what’s happening and doing everything they can to support him.”

Zena Saifo is still reeling from the day of his detention, she said, when she, her brother, and lawyers arrived at the Mount Laurel ICE office for the check-in around 7:30 a.m. and were made to wait until past noon. The Saifos’ lawyer notified Zena her father would be detained. She tearfully pleaded with the ICE officer to let her say goodbye to him but was denied, she said.

“‘Was this the last time I saw my father?’” Zena Saifo recalled wondering in the moment. “It was just really, really devastating.”

In the period since Iemad Saifo’s detention, two of his sons, ages 24 and 26, have taken over the restaurant. His wife has stayed at home and taken care of the youngest. He turned 12 last weekend without his father present.

Zena Saifo said her father’s two requests of her in his absence were to water the family fig tree and to host a big celebration for her brother’s birthday.

On Friday morning, the family was en route to pay the $7,500 bond and pick Iemad Saifo up from Delaney Hall, Powell said.

The 2018 charge was brought up during the bond review, she said, but “in the end the judge was able to see that he’s an older man with a family who needs him and strong community ties and that he deserves to be home with his family.”

Going forward, Iemad Saifo’s legal team will do all it can to secure permanent residency for him. In the interim, Powell said, immigrants are always at risk of detention regardless of their circumstances. The Trump administration has issued 46,000 orders of removal or voluntary deportation since the start of last year in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, more than in the entirety of former President Joe Biden’s term. In New Jersey’s courts, orders of removal or voluntary departure rose 47% just between May and June, from 2,348 to 3,446.

However, to legally detain Iemad Saifo again, the government would need to show something about his situation has changed.

“It could take potentially months or years more in order to get him permanent status here, but we will continue doing everything we can to keep him here,” Powell said.