Emine Emanet, NJ restaurant owner arrested by ICE, is freed on bond from immigrant detention

Jeff Gammage, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Mar 12, 2025

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Emine Emanet walked free from a New Jersey immigrant-detention center and into the arms of her family on Wednesday, two weeks and a day after she and her husband were arrested by ICE agents at their Haddon Township restaurant.

The Jersey Kebab owner hugged her eldest son, Muhammed, and then her husband, Celal, raising her arms and crying out as they presented her with flowers outside the jail in Elizabeth, N.J.

The husband and wife embraced for several minutes, speaking to one another in their native Turkish.

Emanet’s release came a little more than 24 hours after an immigration judge ruled that she could be freed from custody on $7,500 bond.

The case roused outrage in Haddon Township, where the immigrant owners of the corner eatery are a familiar and welcome presence. A locally organized Go Fund Me has raised more than $327,000 for the family’s legal defense, living expenses and lost income.

Emine Emanet, 47, has been jailed since she and her husband were arrested Feb. 25, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at their Haddon Township business , which the couple has run since 2020. Her husband, Celal Emanet, 51, was fitted with an electronic ankle monitor and released.

The bond hearing that enabled her release took place Tuesday in a small courtroom located within the detention center where Emanet has been held. Judge Adrian Armstrong rejected the government argument that Emanet was a flight risk.

Her attorney, Joseph Best of Best Law Associates LLC, argued that the family was in fact deeply rooted, with a business to run, children at home, and all their extended family around them in South Jersey.

“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 on Wednesday. “Instead, tens of thousands of dollars of public money was spent arresting and detaining a grandmother with no criminal record.”

That, he said, “was both unjust and inefficient.”

ICE has not commented on Emanet being granted bond.

In Haddon Township on Wednesday, friends waited eagerly for Emanet’s release.

Muhammad Belal, who owns the Cloud Smoke Shop directly across Haddon Avenue, said it has been sad to see the restaurant dark. He and the Emanet family tended to close up their businesses together, usually around 9 p.m., and always shared a word or a story about the day’s work.

“Muhammed,” he said of the couple’s eldest son, “is like a brother to me. One call away.”

He’s phoned his friend every day since the arrests, he said, asking what he can do to help, and the reply is always the same: “Just pray.”

It is not clear why Emine Emanet was jailed and her husband released, given their similar circumstances. The couple, who live in Cherry Hill, came legally to the United States in 2008 but fell out of status when their visas expired.

He entered the country on an R-1 visa, the type of visa that can be granted to ministers or religious leaders, and she was what is known as the derivative, able to apply for a visa based on the principal’s application.

ICE says that it exercises its discretion in making custody decisions, and that those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis after considering the totality of circumstances — primarily the potential risk of flight, threat to national security and risk to public safety.

At the bond hearing, the government argued only one of those points, that Emanet was a risk to flee. Her attorney rejected that, along with any idea that she posed a security risk, and the judge ruled from the bench within 15 minutes.

“I’m glad to see that Emine was able to reunite with her family,” South Jersey Congressman Donald Norcross said after the bond hearing. “While their legal battle is far from over, my office will continue to work with the family throughout the process.”

During the hearing, Emine Emanet sat alone at one table before the judge, the government lawyer at another to her left, her attorney speaking by video feed to her right. She said nothing during the proceedings. When the judge ruled, she stood and flashed a smile to the people who filled the courtroom.

“Thank God!” Celal Emanet told The Inquirer as he left the court after the bond ruling on Tuesday. “My heart is full.”

Son Muhammed Emanet had awaited the bond hearing with hope and expectation, chatting in a courtroom hallway with friends who had traveled from Philadelphia and South Jersey in support.

“I’m very relieved,” he said, walking out of the detention center. “It kind of felt like this two weeks were a nightmare that turned into a dream. Hopefully it’s going to have a fairy tale ending at the end of it.”