ICE arrests co-owner of three lackawanna county restaurants

Immigration officers last week detained the co-owner of three restaurants in the North Pocono area of Lackawanna County, according to his family.

Nasario Damian (Contreras), 45, originally from Mexico, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Tuesday outside Isabella’s Eatery in Jefferson Township, his son Erik Arceno said.

Arceno, 22, said he was called about the arrest and rushed to the restaurant.

“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.

“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,” Arceno said.

Arceno, who serves in the Army Reserves, later spoke to his father at Pike County Correctional Facility, one of the sites in Pennsylvania where ICE holds detainees. Records show Damian Contreras was registered there Tuesday morning.

He said his father is worried about being deported but is “doing the best he can do being in jail.”

“My dad was always telling me that he’s a strong guy,” he added.

While ICE has not confirmed the arrest, family members have, and the online inmate-tracking site Vinelink lists him in custody. The site records his full name as Nasario Damian Contreras, though some know him simply as Nasario Damian, as used in a 2019 Scranton Times-Tribune article.

Arceno explained that his father moved to the United States at 17 to support his grandfather. He later obtained legal status. According to Vargas, a delay with a lawyer caused his work permit to lapse. A second lawyer didn’t act, so they have now hired a new one to help resolve his immigration case.

“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,” she said.

Arceno said his father started working at a young age in Mexico and met his mother after arriving in the U.S. They later separated.

“He’s a good, good man,” Arceno 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.”

Vargas met Damian when both worked at Brick Oven Pizzeria in South Scranton more than six years ago. Damian had already spent years working in New York City restaurants. After a year at Brick Oven, they opened Leonor’s, named after Vargas’s mother.

“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.”

They later launched Isabella’s, named after Damian’s mother. Vargas handles staffing and finances, while Damian runs the kitchen. He’s a self-taught cook who learned on the job.

“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 also enjoys eating out and exploring new dishes.

“He likes to eat. He likes to go out to different places. He’s always trying different restaurants. He likes to get new ideas all the time,” she said.

Running the restaurants alone while caring for their baby has been difficult, Vargas said.

“It’s hard,” she said. “I can’t imagine myself like me, myself with three restaurants (and) we have the baby.”

After the arrest, many in the North Pocono community shared supportive messages on Facebook and encouraged others to submit notarised letters vouching for Damian’s character.

The letters, one resident wrote, are meant to “attest to Damian’s character and that he is a respected business owner, devoted community member and generous philanthropist.” Arceno said more than 400 people signed.

“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,” Arceno 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.”

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