Leigh Gerardi said she felt “physically sick” when she heard that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had detained Nasario Damian Contreras, a restaurateur and respected member of the North Pocono community currently being held at the Pike County Correctional Facility.
Word of the recent ICE arrest began spreading earlier this week on social media, which featured a number of messages of support for the business owner known to many simply as Damian and identified in prior Times-Tribune restaurant profiles as Nasario Damian.
ICE’s online detainee locator system lists “Nasario Damian Contreras” as being in ICE custody at the Pike County Correctional Facility and lists Mexico as his country of birth.
The Pike County jail is one of several in the state that federal authorities use to hold detainees suspected of immigration violations. Vinelink, a searchable online service providing information on the custody status of incarcerated individuals, also lists 45-year-old “Nasario Damian Contreras” as in custody there.
The newspaper has not been able to independently confirm specific details of the arrest or his immigration status.
Gerardi, a litigation paralegal who lives in Daleville and has known “Damian” for more than three years, said she got to know him by eating at his restaurants. State business records list Nasario Damian as an officer of three restaurants in the North Pocono region: Damian’s Eatery in Clifton Twp., Isabella’s Eatery in Jefferson Twp. and Leonor’s Eatery in Moscow.
Damian and Mayte Vargas opened Leonor’s as co-owners in September 2019, according to a newspaper profile that notes Damian “realized he had found his career 20 years ago, when he learned how to cook in New York.”
“I know Damian through the community,” Gerardi said. “He is so friendly that you cannot not get to know Damian. Damian comes out of the kitchen, he walks around to the tables, he gives me a hug every time I see him. He is just very outgoing.”
Gerardi also said Damian and Vargas, the mother of his young child, did a baby shower for her family and her mother-in-law’s 90th birthday party.
“They just made it really nice and special, and so I got to know them more through the planning process for those events,” she said, describing Damian as extremely charitable, hardworking and accommodating. “Just anything he can do for you, he would do.”
Word of the ICE arrest hit Gerardi hard.
“Plain and simple, I was sick, physically sick,” she said. “I did not sleep for two nights thinking about this and what we could do to try to help him. The feeling of helplessness is what’s been terrible, of not knowing what to do for them or how to support them. … To know that you can walk outside one of your businesses and be handcuffed, it makes me physically ill.”
Multiple efforts to reach Damian’s family were unsuccessful.
The sweeping nature of immigration raids and arrests under President Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of mass deportations, has been highly controversial, prompting large-scale protests in parts of the country. A late June survey by the Marist Poll in partnership with NPR and PBS News suggests that more than half of Americans, 54%, “describe the actions of ICE in upholding immigration laws as having gone too far,” while 18% said they haven’t gone far enough.
The results also show a partisan divide in opinion on the issue.
“While 83% of Democrats and 59% of independents say ICE has gone too far, nearly half of Republicans (49%) say their actions are appropriate,” the Marist Poll notes. “An additional 31% of the GOP say ICE has not gone far enough in enforcing immigration laws.”
Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, a vocal critic of the Trump administration and its immigration policies, said he doesn’t know Damian or the specifics of his situation.
“But just in general, I think this entire ICE operation and what Donald Trump and the Republicans are doing comes down to one thing and one thing only, and that is cruelty,” Gaughan said. “This is cruel. This is not the United States of America that I grew up in. It’s not the country that my grandparents grew up in. … And for the most part these people are hardworking men and women who want to become American citizens. I don’t know every intricacy of their stories, but overall this is a disgrace.”
“I think it’s a disgrace they’re going after people that don’t deserve to be treated like this,” he added later. “And it makes me want to puke that they’re doing it.”
The broader immigration debate notwithstanding, many in the community have rallied around Damian after word of his ICE arrest spread. A Facebook post Tuesday by Leonor’s Eatery announcing the restaurant would be closed Wednesday “due to catching up on work in the kitchen” prompted dozens of supportive comments from friends and patrons.
“We are Super proud as a community to have you and your family here and can’t wait for this storm to pass so we (can) move forward into the future and enjoy you being a staple in this community,” one commenter wrote, expressing a sentiment shared by many others.
Trey Cephas, a 17-year-old North Pocono High School student who washes dishes at and makes deliveries for Damian’s Eatery, said he learned of Damian’s arrest at football practice.
“I’m just very sad,” Cephas said, describing Damian as a helpful member of the community and a friendly and accommodating boss. “He’s nothing but kind to anybody who comes in to eat at Damian’s. He’s just an all-around great guy.”
Cephas also said he was scared for Damian.
“He’s a great guy and he’s been nothing but nice to me,” he said. “I’d be scared if I was in his situation.”
Gerardi, meanwhile, said she’s trying to raise awareness and support Damian and his family in any way she can.
“I’m thinking of everything,” Gerardi said. “I’m thinking of his 6-month-old baby. I’m thinking of his businesses that he’s worked so hard for, I don’t want them to suffer. … I’m thinking about the worst-case scenario (of) him being moved somewhere even worse. I’ve been thinking about that, like what is the next phase? Is he going to be released and come home to the community that he knows and where he’s loved and cared for? Or is he going to be sent somewhere even worse?”
“Just the not knowing is terrible,” she said.