An Albanian immigrant who worked as a waiter at a Long Island diner for 24 years — and always filed his taxes — said immigration agents shackled him two months ago, threw him in jail for two days and then put him on a plane back to his native country.

Sokol Vokshi, 47, said he wasn’t even allowed to call his wife or two kids at their home in Elmont during the ordeal.

“I didn’t know what hit me,” Vokshi, now stranded in Durrës, Albania, told The Post Monday.

His immigration lawyer, Altin Nanaj, said the deportation was highly unusual because Vokshi had been issued a Social Security number, given annual work permits, paid his taxes every year, and has no criminal record.

“This is a model family man who worked day and night,” said Nanaj.

“ICE is after everybody.”

Jimmy Trahanas, the owner of the Golden Reef Diner in Rockville Centre, said he didn’t know what to make of it when Vokshi – known as “Sal” – suddenly didn’t show up for work.

“The customers were upset,” he said. “Everybody was asking for him.”

A poster that hangs in the window shows two photos of “Sal” and publicizes a GoFundMe campaign created by customers to help defray his legal fees and other expenses.

So far, more than $11,600 from 168 people has been raised for the “Get Sal Back to the USA” fund started by customer Warren Prosky on April 22.

“Sal came to the US 24 years ago and has worked at the Golden Reef diner for those 24 years. He married a woman from Albania, and they have two children, ages 12 and 14,” reads the fund blurb.

“Sal owns his house in Elmont, NY and has been trying to become an American for years.”

Vokshi said he was a young political asylum seeker when he made it to New York in 1993.

He registered with the federal government and was given a Social Security number. When immigration judges denied his application to live in the US in 1997 and asked him to leave, he said a series of lawyers he hired told him to stay put and appeal.

“They told me, ‘Stay, during your appeal. Keep working, keep at it,’” he recalled.

“One thing led to another, I stayed, I worked, I got married, I had kids.”

Vokshi said he was sent a letter by ICE asking him to appear at a meeting with it at 26 Federal Plaza on April 3.

He said he thought it would be another routine meeting discussing his appeal.

But once in the office, Vokshi said agents tossed out his lawyer out and slapped on the cuffs.

Three days later, he was on a plane back to Albania, where his sister still lives.

“I don’t recognize this place,” he said.

Vokshi said he is still paying $12,000 in annual real estate taxes on his Long Island home and has been trying to find work in Albania.

“I go to the restaurants and the bars, but they don’t hire me,” he said.

“They think I’m old.”

He said if he can’t get a visa to get back to the United States, his wife and American-born daughter will join him in Albania.

“We can’t be separated like this,” he said.

“Our American dream is turning into a nightmare.”