The popular Jersey Kebab restaurant in Haddon Township was shuttered on Wednesday after federal immigration agents descended and took the middle-aged couple who own the business into custody.

Angry neighbors have raised thousands of dollars for an attorney and for living expenses to support the husband and wife, who run the eatery on the main business corridor with their son, who works as manager.

Celal and Emine Emanet came legally to the United States from Turkey in 2008, but fell out of status when their visas expired. They have been awaiting a government decision on their application for legal permanent residency since 2016, having been turned down several times previously, according to their son, Muhammed Emanet, 25.

The husband, Celal, 51, was released from ICE custody Tuesday night after being fitted with an ankle monitor, while his wife, Emine, 47, continues to be held at a detention center in Elizabeth, N.J.

A Go Fund Me campaign for the family raised more than $117,000 as of Wednesday afternoon, with donations continuing to arrive. More than 2,500 people gave money.

ICE officials in New Jersey said they would respond to questions about the case as soon as possible.

Muhammed Emanet said he arrived at work about 11 a.m. Tuesday to find a federal marshal standing outside the restaurant holding a machine gun, “looking like we’re going to war.”

Emanet said he was allowed to enter after explaining that he worked there.

Inside, he said, he found his father and mother in handcuffs. Both parents were soon removed from the restaurant and taken away, he said. Agents also went to the family’s home in Cherry Hill.

His father, Muhammed Emanet said in an interview on Wednesday, is a highly educated religious scholar, and came to the United States after being invited to serve as an imam at a local mosque.

“My dad, he’s never gotten a parking ticket,” the son said. “Now he’s walking around with an ankle monitor on his ankle, like he’s a criminal.”

His mother, he said, “She’s stuck behind bars, a person that never committed a crime in their life.”

The first goal, he said, is to free his mother from detention. But at the same time, Emanet said, the family needs money to survive. On Wednesday he quickly found a job with a bread company, and was out making deliveries even as he tried to reach officials and friends who could help his family.

The restaurant will be closed indefinitely.

“It took us 16 years to build,” Muhammed Emanet said. “People have witnessed our biggest fears come to life.”

By staying in the U.S. after the expiration of their visas, the family fell out of legal immigration status. People who are in the United States without official permission can be arrested and deported at any time.

The Trump administration has pushed to increase the number of immigration arrests as it carries out what it says will be the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.

Critics maintain that while ICE says it’s targeting dangerous, criminal immigrants, it often arrests people who post no danger to the communities in which they live. Observers say the pressure for arrests and the insurmountable numbers — ICE employs about 20,000, while 13.7 million are undocumented — causes the agency to act against migrants who constitute “low-hanging fruit,” whose only offense is being here without permission.

In this case, local supporters say, the Emanets are businesspeople who pay taxes, sought legal status, and who regularly provide free meals to the hungry. A sign on the restaurant door states, “Free to anyone with a disability, homeless, or simply cannot afford it.”

“This is gutting,” one man, Garrett White, posted on social media, noting the family’s care for the less fortunate. “They have been nothing short of incredible people to us ever since we first started frequenting there.”

Another person, Miche Nickolaisen, was organizing a group to visit the offices of U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross and register the community’s concern. Efforts to reach the congressman for comment were not immediately successful.

“It’s shocking that we have U.S. marshals showing up at the doorstep of a community business that not only serves our community as a restaurant, but has fed homeless individuals,” said Rebeca Silva de Foote, a township resident who patronizes the eatery. “It really makes me question what the objective is of our administration. Is it really to go after criminals?... There’s been a massive push to get anyone who is here and undocumented.”

President Donald Trump was elected partly on a promise to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, and has moved swiftly to try to fulfill that pledge. On Friday the administration reassigned the top official and Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the pace of arrests and deportations.

In Philadelphia reports of ICE activity have increased since Trump was inaugurated, including this month’s raid of a North Philadelphia car wash in which seven undocumented men were arrested.

None of those taken into custody had criminal records, according to immigration advocates, who questioned why ICE leaders who have pledged to conduct “worst first” arrests, targeting those suspected of violent crimes, had set their sights on a small neighborhood business.

ICE has about 42,000 immigrants in custody and electronically monitors nearly five times that number, according to government statistics. Nearly 55% of those in detention have no criminal record.

The Mediterranean Jersey Kebab restaurant stands on Haddon Avenue, across from the township Municipal building. According to the Go Fund Me campaign, the couple live with their four children, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren.

Two of the children are American citizens by birth. Muhammed, the manager at Jersey Kebab, came here from Turkey as a child.

He’s a graduate of Rutgers University-Camden, and a husband and father of two. His sister, Zeynep, 23, is a Swarthmore College graduate and works at a local civil-rights organization.

Muhammed Emanet said the situation is especially upsetting for his 15-year-old brother, Hamza, who is autistic.

The family has worked to overcome challenges in creating a life in the United States, he said.

Lack of legal immigration status makes them and others ineligible for most federal benefits, and generally unable to obtain loans for business and education. Government regulations require they pay taxes but grant no benefits, such as Social Security, he noted.

His father holds a doctorate in Islamic history, though that academic credential and education is not recognized here.

“He’s behind a grill all day,” the son said, adding that was merely a fact, not a complaint. “We’re perfectly fine. That’s what God has provided for us. ... Everything we’ve had in this country, we’ve built from the ground up.”

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