UPDATE: Cloyd Edralin was released from ICE custody on Sept. 19, 2018.

A New Jersey green card holder from the Philippines was detained by federal immigration agents on his way to work Monday and could soon be deported because of an 11-year-old conviction on a gun charge, signaling the Trump Administration's willingness to remove even legal, permanent residents who committed crimes. 

Cloyd Edralin, a 47-year-old father of four, left his home in Highland Park at about 5:30 a.m. to go to his new job as a machinist when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) approached him, according to his wife, Brandi Davison-Edralin, who's a U.S. citizen. "Out of nowhere they just picked him up. We had no warning that this was going to happen," she said. "I thought he was kidding when he called me to say he was picked up by ICE."

At age 17, Edralin applied and was approved for a green card to the U.S. to follow his mother, who was already a resident. He has lived in the U.S. for the last 30 years, and the federal government approved all his green card renewals -- even after he was put on probation for possession of an air rifle in 2007. 

On Monday ICE agents took Edralin to a Newark facility, where he was processed, and then to the privately-run Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, where he will spend weeks or months until he appears before an immigration judge either to request bail or fight his deportation.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Emilio Dabul, said Edralin is "removable" based on his felony conviction.

Lawyers and advocates said that while convicted criminals who are green card holders can legally be deported, this case is unusual and might indicate a new approach. Previously the Trump Administration said it was only targeting for deportation immigrants with past criminal convictions who were living in the country without legal documentation. 

Dabul denied that ICE is operating differently, but he did not explain why Edralin was previously allowed to stay in the U.S. as a permanent resident. 

Davison-Edralin said in 2007 her husband was struggling with an addiction to methamphetamines, triggered by the death of his father, when he was pulled over and arrested because drugs were found in the vehicle. The drug charge was later dropped, but he was convicted for illegal possession of an air gun, which in New Jersey is used to shoot squirrels and rabbits.

"Back when the conviction happened, we did know felony convictions could impact someone's immigration status," she said. "After he had renewed his green card with no issue I had made the assumption that this was fine. The government continued to give him permission to live here when they had that information."

Since the arrest Edralin has turned his life around. His is drug-free, volunteers at a hospital and attends support meetings for his addiction most days at the Reformed Church of Highland Park, according to Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale.

Edralin and Davison-Edralin met in 1991 and married in 1996. They have four children together, ages 11, 15, 19 and 22.