The nation’s preeminent group of civil rights lawyers has joined the cause of one Upper Darby family struggling to find answers about the death of a loved one while in federal custody last month.
American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania attorneys Victoria Peña-Parr and Keith Armstrong joined the family and supporters of Parady La outside the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center at 700 Arch St. in Philadelphia to demand accountability from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and to announce the filing of a Freedom of Information Act request seeking materials about the circumstances of his detainment and death.
Parady La, 46, Upper Darby, died of apparent withdrawal symptoms while in federal custody last month. He was picked up by agents outside his home Jan. 6 and died early Jan. 9 in Philadelphia. His family is trying to uncover more details about the final hours of his life. (Courtesy the La family)
FOIA a first step
“ICE detention is cruel, inhumane and unnecessary,” Peña-Parr told reporters gathered on the sidewalk Thursday afternoon. “The La family and the public deserve answers and accountability, and the FOIA request is the first step in that process.”
The Daily Times already made a similar request last month, but received a denial letter from ICE Jan. 22 indicating the materials being sought are part of “ongoing law enforcement investigations” that, if disclosed before completion, “could reasonably be expected to interfere with law enforcement proceedings and final agency actions related to those proceedings.”
The Daily Times plans to refile its own request later this month.
Supporters holding signs for Parady La of Upper Darby, who died last month after being taken into custody by ICE, during a late-day rally Thursday outside the Philadelphia Federal Detention Facility. (ALEX ROSE – DAILY TIMES)
ICE’s statement
La, 46, Upper Darby, was a Cambodian immigrant who came to the country in 1981 at age 2 as his family escaped the Khmer Rouge genocide.
He was granted lawful permanent resident status one year later.
Parady’s family said he struggled with addiction for much of his life, which was only exacerbated by his brother’s death in 2005 during an attempted robbery.
He had several convictions for mostly nonviolent offenses like forgery, receiving stolen property and possession of a controlled substance, though he did also have a 2000 conviction for robbery with a 3-23 month sentence.
ICE stated in a Jan. 10 death notice that these arrests led to La losing his legal residency, but the accuracy of that statement has not yet been verified.
It was also unclear whether La was specifically targeted when he was picked up about a half-mile from his home Jan. 6 or if he was detained during a chance encounter with ICE agents as he went grocery shopping for his family.
Either way, the official narrative from ICE stated that La was being held at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia and that he had received treatment for withdrawal symptoms, but was found unresponsive in his cell Jan. 7, and taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition. He died in the early morning hours Jan. 9.
That notice also indicated La was given Narcan, which is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose but does nothing to treat withdrawal symptoms.
Family’s questions
Why Narcan was administered in this instance is just one of many questions the La family has about Parady’s final hours.
They are also challenging ICE’s statement that he received treatment and claim they have witnesses who say his repeated pleas for medical help were ignored.
They said he was vomiting and in distress for more than 24 hours, and did not receive proper medical care.
“Parady was not perfect, and he struggled with addiction, but he still always showed up for his family,” said his wife, Meghan Morgan. “To us, he was a provider, a caregiver, and a protector. We came here today because we are angry, and we want to know why he didn’t receive the medical care that he deserved.”
Morgan said that family was everything to her husband, and vowed to continue the press for answers and accountability.
Parady’s daughter, Jazmine La, said the word that comes to mind when she thinks of her father is “adventurous,” because they always seemed to be heading off together to a park, or to visit an uncle in Delaware, or to the tennis courts where he would spend hours honing his skill in the sport he loved most.
“Now that he’s no longer here for us to continue our adventures, I will keep and cherish the ones that we had,” she said. “I never felt alone when my dad was around. He was always looking out for me, introducing me to lifelong friends with kids for me to play with, making sure I was taken care of, all while battling his own addiction. That’s the kind of person that my dad was.”
Parady La’s daughter, Jazmine, is calling on the federal government to provide her with answers about the circumstances of her father’s death (ALEX ROSE – DAILY TIMES)
Jazmine said her father’s death has greatly impacted her entire family, from his nieces and nephews who lived with him and are now left without a father figure, to his own siblings mourning the loss of another brother and her grandparents, now back in Cambodia, mourning the loss of another son.
“I’m grieving the loss of my dad, but I am also angry,” Jazmine La said. “I am enraged at the thought of my father suffering in his cell while staff actively ignored his distress. All we know is that they found him alone, unresponsive, they gave him CPR, and … Narcan for his withdrawal. We all know it was too little, too late.”
Jazmine said her father was taken to the hospital already suffering from multiple organ failures with cold skin and severe oxygen deprivation to the brain.
“I ask, how long does a person have to be unattended for, for them to be found in that state?” she said. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have seen medical neglect or preventable deaths while in ICE custody, and not just our city, but across America. Just this year, six people have died in ICE custody, including my father and two American citizens were executed by ICE agents. These are not coincidences. This is a pattern of neglect, lack of training, aNd lack of empathy.”
Calls for accountability
The press conference took place on the same day that a National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service and Marist poll of nearly 1,500 respondents found two-thirds of Americans, including 71% of independent voters, believe ICE has gone “too far” in enforcing immigration policies.
“This administration is willfully violating the Constitution in so many ways across the entire immigration enforcement process,” said state Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26, Swarthmore, who was on hand at the rally with new Upper Darby Councilman Kyle McIntyre.
“This administration must be held to account,” Kearney continued. “There can be no more deaths in ICE custody. Mr. La’s death was a completely unnecessary and preventable tragedy. The recklessness that Americans are witnessing on the streets of Minneapolis is mirrored by the negligence that ICE is demonstrating here with the people that they have detained. But what’s more, ICE is refusing to acknowledge its errors and refusing to answer the questions of Mr. La’s family and the press.”
McIntyre said borough council is behind the La family and their pursuit of justice, and he encouraged the federal government to be as transparent as possible. He noted he was not on council for a week before he was calling the La family to offer condolences.
State Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26, Swarthmore, speaking, joined the La family with Upper Darby Council Member Kyle McIntyre, left (ALEX ROSE – DAILY TIMES)
“So, for me, it is personal and we need to do everything we can to make sure the family receives justice because it’s been happening too often, frankly,” McIntyre said. “My personal beliefs are that anyone who is an immigrant should be allowed to stay. Our immigrants make our community stronger and they need to be protected, and they have Constitutional rights too, and this government has no regard whatsoever for our residents or for lives.”
McIntyre’s comments came the day after Upper Darby Mayor Ed Brown informed the community that ICE will no longer communicate with police about their activities in the community through police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt.
“Because of the federal focus on immigration by ICE, our large immigrant population is at risk,” Brown said at a council meeting Wednesday night. “We’ve seen the horrific stories on the news of seemingly innocent people being killed doing something that is legal and called out in our Constitution, and that is to protest.”
“We as a municipality, state and country … should be able to protest peacefully and passionately with no risk to our safety,” he said. “Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Parady La should not be names we know, but we know them now because of how they died. They should be alive, their families shouldn’t be mourning their deaths but that is the reality of the world we are living in right now.”
Parady La’s wife, Meghan Morgan, said he was a devoted family man who was a provider, caregiver and protector (ALEX ROSE -DAILY TIMES)
‘Scapegoating immigrants’
Nancy Nguyen of VietLead and the Shut Down Detention Coalition offered some numbers in her comments at Thursday’s event, beginning with 37 deaths in ICE custody since President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term on Jan. 20, 2025, the highest rate in two decades.
ICE also recently acquired a 527,000-square-foot warehouse in Berks County for $87.4 million, the planned site of a new detention center. Nguyen said that is among 9,000 additional planned beds at detention centers just in Pennsylvania alone, a four-fold increase.
“One hundred and seventy billion taxpayer dollars, ICE’s new budget in 2026, up from $10 billion just last year and more than most military budgets around the world,” Nguyen went on. “This, at the same time that funding for food benefits, Medicaid, Obamacare, affordable housing is being cut across our city, across our country.”
Private prison operators like CoreCivic and GEO Group, among other corporations, are expected to make billions in profits from the “daily kidnapping, detention and deportation” of family members, friends and neighbors, Nguyen said.
Parady was one of thousands who came to Philadelphia and the surrounding area in the 1980s, and whose entire life and identity were etched into its environs, she said.
His story was also not unlike hundreds of other Vietnamese, Mung and Cambodian descendants nationwide who are now being ripped away from their families, leaving gaping holes in the fabrics of those communities and local economies, Nguyen added.
“An attack on immigrants is an attack on workers,” she said. “You’re scapegoating immigrants so that we don’t blame the billionaires.”
‘Here for the fight’
“Today, we are standing here not just in grief, but to fight for Parady,” said his niece, Lisa. “We will not let him become just another statistic. Together with the ACLU, we are filing a Freedom of Information Act (request) because we need answers. We demand that ICE take accountability for his death and the misleading narrative produced about him. We demand full financial compensation for his death and we demand change to prevent any more deaths in ICE custody.”
Armstrong said that ICE is required to undertake certain investigations after a death in custody and that process does take a little time.
Government agencies have a 20-day window to respond to FOIA requests, Peña-Parr said, but can request an extension.
“From our experience with FOIA requests that we’ve submitted to ICE, ICE usually does not respond within the statutory timeframe and so we end up filing a lawsuit based on their deep denial for not responding timely,” Armstrong said. “…In general, we don’t always expect ICE to respond to FOIA requests. They often require litigation, so we’re expecting that will be the case in this situation as well. But we’re here for the fight.”
Armstrong noted the La family has already retained the services of attorney Jon Feinberg to assist them in discovering the truth about what happened to Parady and, if necessary, file a wrongful death lawsuit. That would be a separate lawsuit from anything filed by the ACLU.
Peña-Parr said it is vitally important for the La family and the public at large that they get the answers being sought through the FOIA request, however, including any medical records, videos or other materials that could shed light on Parady’s final hours.
“With these records, we will help uncover what is happening in detention centers and fight this inhumane war that is being waged on our neighbors, our loved ones, and our community members, regardless of their immigration status,” she said. “What happened to Mr. La should have never occurred. We stand with the La family in their pursuit of justice, accountability and transparency.”