The family of an Upper Darby man, a Cambodian immigrant, who died while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Philadelphia last week is seeking answers about the circumstances of his death.
“This isn’t about him being deported or anything like that, this is about his care while in federal custody,” said Michael La, nephew of 46-year-old Parady La, who died early last Friday morning at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after being arrested by ICE Jan. 6.
“This person, from everything that we have read so far in their (ICE’s) statements, he was wasn’t taken care of while he was in their custody, and that’s their duty,” Michael said.
Local support
The case has attracted international attention and the family has seen an ever growing list of supporters, not just from friends, family and the Cambodian community, but from elected leaders including U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5, Swarthmore, and members of Upper Darby Township Council.
Scanlon said in a statement that her office was contacted shortly after La’s death, and she put an inquiry in to ICE liaisons for more information.
“After receiving permission from the family, we followed up with ICE on Tuesday morning to request additional information about ICE policies related to detained individuals needing medical care and the specific circumstances of Mr. La’s death,” she said. “Our inquiries about Mr. La’s detention are in addition to oversight activity my House Judiciary colleagues and I are pursuing regarding deaths and lack of medical care in ICE custody.”
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5 of Swarthmore
So far, Scanlon has not received any additional information about La, according to her communications director.
“Parady La was our resident. His life mattered. His family deserves the truth, and our community deserves accountability,” Upper Darby Councilman Kyle McIntyre said in a social media post Tuesday. “I am calling on Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse to investigate this death and determine whether criminal or civil violations occurred. All relevant records, medical logs, reports, and surveillance footage must be preserved and reviewed.”
Rouse could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Lifelong battle
A Jan. 10 statement from ICE said Parady La was a “career criminal.”
His arrest record was for offenses like receiving stolen property, forgery and possession of a controlled substance, which appear to be in line with his family’s statement that he struggled with addiction for most of his life.
La did also have a juvenile adjudication for simple assault and a conviction for robbery and conspiracy in 2000, for which he was sentenced to 3 to 23 months. Further details about that were not available. La would have been 20 in 2000 and not a juvenile.
Parady La was born in a refugee camp as his family was fleeing the Khmer Rouge genocide and came to America at age 2 in 1981 as a refugee. He became a lawful permanent resident a year later.
ICE said in its statement that he lost his resident status due to his criminal history.
“Like many who arrive as refugees and grow up in difficult circumstances, his life included struggles,” Michael La said in a Facebook post. “But struggles do not erase a person’s humanity, their love for their family, or their right to dignity. A list of past mistakes cannot capture the man his family knew: someone who cared deeply for his wife, who was proud of his daughter, and who remained connected to his relatives and community.”
But in his final hours, family contends Parady La suffered alone, his pleas ignored by his captors as his condition worsened and became fatal.
McIntyre said that if accurate, the failure to provide immediate and continuous medical care represents “a profound breach of duty and basic human decency.”
“Our family also believes that portions of the official statements released about Parady’s detention and death are inaccurate and misleading,” said Michael La. “There are facts that have not yet been made public, and there are matters we cannot yet speak on, but the truth will come to light. … No government statement can take away his identity, his humanity, or the love his family will always have for him.”
Michael La said Thursday that he was baffled by the “career criminal” label, since that was never attributed to someone like the famous criminal American financier Bernie Madoff, literally a “career criminal” whose entire working life was based on committing fraud, but the term was being hung on his uncle post-mortem.
Family members also recoiled at the term as a way to somehow make someone seem like less of a person deserving empathy and care.
He was a devoted father and husband, as well as a loving son, brother and uncle who supported and protected his family even as he dealt with his own demons, they said.
Parady La with his daughter Jazmine, now 23. (COURTESY OF THE LA FAMILY)
“My father has been battling with addition for my entire life,” said his daughter, Jazmine, 23. “I have seen him at his highs, I have seen him at his lows, and throughout it all, throughout his addiction, throughout his crimes, he was not that kind of person. He did what he did to try to survive, to try to support his family. And I think their statement listing all of his crimes at the end of his death notification is a way for them to dehumanize him and to say, for anyone reading it, ‘Hey, you know, his death was justified because he committed all these crimes.’ ”
She said she was unsure what drove her father to addiction initially, but she knew that it was something he struggled with for his entire life, starting at a young age, and that it got worse after his youngest brother died in 2005.
But it was not like he did not try going to methadone clinics or taking other steps to get clean, she said. It was just very difficult for her father to stay that way.
Official story
According to a death notice issued by ICE:
Parady La was arrested outside his Upper Darby residence Jan. 6 and detained at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia.
He was found unresponsive in his cell the following day.
Federal Detention Center officers “immediately administered CPR and several doses of Narcan,” which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose but does not treat withdrawal symptoms, and called for medical assistance.
Parady was transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital by emergency medical services technicians, where he was admitted in critical condition. Medical evaluations showed limited brain function and he was diagnosed with anoxic brain injury, post cardiac arrest, shock and multiple organ failures on Jan. 8.
Parady remained in the hospital’s Neuro Intensive Care Unit, but staff eventually determined that he had suffered complete renal failure and no longer had any brain activity. Family was notified and visited him at the hospital, where he was declared dead at 3:22 a.m. on Jan. 9.
Disputing ICE account
During his short stay at the detention center, family members say Parady suffered from severe withdrawal symptoms and repeatedly asked for medical help that he never received. They said he was vomiting and in distress for more than 24 hours, but did not receive proper medical care.
“There are serious inconsistencies between what our family has been told, what witnesses have described, and what has been publicly stated,” Michael La wrote in the description of a GoFundMe for La’s surviving family. “Because of these contradictions, we believe the official account does not fully or accurately reflect what happened in Parady’s final hours. We are seeking transparency, medical records and accountability so the truth can come to light.”
Immigration and deportation issues have become a keystone of President Donald Trump’s second term, and Minneapolis is currently a flashpoint of conflict with residents and elected officials who have strongly rejected the need for federal agents in their communities.
Parady La of Upper Darby, who died early Jan. 9 in Philadelphia, in an undated photo with his daughter Jazmine. (COURTESY OF THE LA FAMILY)
The Daily Times has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for all records associated with Parady’s detention and death, though it may be weeks before those are released, if ever.
What the family knows
Jazmine La said that her father headed out to Fresh Grocer to get food for his family on the morning of Jan. 6. When he failed to return after a few hours, she said, family members became concerned and tried to track him down.
“They found his car about half a mile or so down the street from his house and at that point, 12:45 maybe, they finally got a phone call from him saying that ICE agents had surrounded his car. They asked for his ID and they detained him,” she said. “That was the last we ever heard from him.”
According to Jazmine, ICE may not have been targeting him in particular and just randomly stopped him.
She said her father told her mother on the phone that he knew he was going to go through withdrawal.
The family is unsure of exactly what happened between that call and when they received word from the hospital saying he was in critical condition, but some sources reported he was actively going through withdrawal, vomiting and asking for help, Jazmine said.
“In ICE”s awful statement, they said they found him the next day unresponsive and they gave him CPR and they gave him multiple doses of Narcan, which is used for overdose and not withdrawal,” she said. “So just from their statement alone, it sounds like negligence, that they did not know what they were doing, or they did not know how to treat someone going through withdrawal, let alone fentanyl withdrawal, which I know can be very deadly if it’s not treated.”
Jazmine said the family assembled at the hospital where they were informed that her father’s body was shutting down and doctors expected his heart would stop any minute. They stayed for some hours and he was still in critical condition, but his heart had not stopped.
Family members went home for the night and Jazmine’s cousin got a call about 3:30 a.m. Friday notifying the family that her father was dead.
“I was shocked,” she said. “The last time I had seen him, he was healthy, he was happy, he was smiling. And to see just such the opposite: not able to open his eyes, not able to breathe on his own, you know, his body was there but he was not there, and I just think that nobody, whether it’s a father, a brother, a loved one, should have to experience something like that. And we have a lot of questions as to what happened in between that time that we did not see him for him to end up like that.”
Digging for answers
Attorney Jon Feinberg, who is helping the family seek those answers, said it is very early in that investigation, but the first priority is finding out what happened while Parady was in custody.
“I should say at this point, based on what we’ve heard through second-hand accounts provided by witnesses, it sounds like his obvious and serious medical needs were completely ignored and disregarded for a period of 24 to 48 hours,” said Feinberg. “If that is in fact true, it’s an outrage, it’s offensive and unfortunately, it’s completely consistent with what we have come to expect from a system that has come to dehumanize people.”
Jazmine said that the amount of support her family has received since her father’s death has been overwhelming.
Within just a few days, the GoFundMe site has raised more than $31,000 of a $35,000 goal that will help the family finance its search for answers.
Family, strangers, community members and friends of her father who she never even knew have all reached out to provide condolences and shared his story.
“That kind of community and support is what it’s going to take to get justice for him,” she said. “I think the more people speak out and the more it’s seen, the better chance we have.
“This is not just about my father,” she added. “This is about everyone who is being detained in these facilitates and who is not receiving proper medical care when staff is being notified that they have these medical conditions. I think this needs to be brought to light, that these facilities need to follow proper protocols, they need to treat everyone with care and compassion, regardless of status, regardless of crime, regardless of race, and every human being should be treated as such.”
Services for Parady La will be held at 1:45 p.m. Friday at the Al-Madinah Mosque, 201 S. 69th St., Upper Darby.