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Michael La, 34, has “a lot of memories” from the summers he spent as a child with his uncle, Parady La, who died Jan. 9 while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

“He was like a father figure to me,” Michael said of his uncle. “My parents split up at a really early age of my life. I was a baby, so I didn’t get to see my two parents together, and my dad really wasn’t in my life, right? So [Parady] was the one that connected me to that side of my family.”

Parady La would drive two hours to Michael’s home in Allentown and bring him back to Philadelphia during Michael’s summer vacation. There, Michael recalled that his uncle would give him and other kids money for ice cream when the Mister Softee truck came by.

“He always put himself aside and looked out for his family,” Michael said.

Michael and Parady La’s other family members, friends and loved ones are mourning his loss and celebrating his life at a memorial service in Upper Darby on Friday, even as they push for information about the circumstances that led to the 46-year-old’s death last week.

Michael started a GoFundMe for the family to help pay for funeral expenses and support Parady La’s 23-year-old daughter, Jazmine La. Donations will also go toward the family’s efforts to pursue legal action against ICE and Federal Detention Center Philadelphia.

What happened to Parady La?

According to Michael, on Jan. 6, Parady La asked his cousin if she needed anything from the grocery store. Hours later, family members found his car, empty, parked by the side of the road a half-mile away. Parady La called later that day and informed his family that ICE agents had pulled him over and asked for his ID, and then detained him.

Michael, who lives in Florida, said his cousin called him at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 8 and told him Parady La was in the hospital, and was brain dead.

“One thing is huge, is that your family member, who’s been here their whole life … that he’s being sent to a country he’s never been to before,” he said. “So we’re dealing with that in 24 hours, and a little after 24 hours, we hear that he’s in the hospital, brain dead. So it’s just shocking and really confusing on top of that.”