The disabled man who had been calling for his father’s release from ICE custody has died.
Wael Tarabishi’s family said the Arlington man died after a month of hospitalization.
Tarabishi, 30, suffered from the rare Pompe disease for nearly his whole life.
His father, Maher, was his primary caretaker. ICE agents took Maher into custody in October during a routine check-in.
Since then, his family said Wael’s health sharply declined. They said he’d been in the hospital after his stomach started leaking, and an infection was found spreading through his body.
Wael and his family had been urging ICE to release Maher on humanitarian grounds so that he could care for his son, again. But that never happened.
“Up until Wael’s last conscious moment, he continued thinking and talking about his father,” the family said in a press release on Friday.
They called on ICE to allow Maher to attend his son’s funeral.
“We call on ICE to release Maher Tarabishi so that he may attend his beloved son’s funeral. In Wael’s own words, Maher was Wael’s father, caretaker, his best friend, his everything. He must be allowed to say goodbye to his son. We call on every congressional representative that represents Texas to take action to the fullest extent of their capacity to ensure that Maher gets the opportunity to properly mourn his son and grieve with his family, as is his human right to do,” the family said.
NBC 5 reached out to ICE and Homeland Security officials to ask if the family’s request was being considered. The Department of Homeland Security did not address the new questions, sending the same statement from November. It reads, in part, “Maher Mohd Tarabishi, 62, a criminal alien and self-admitted member of the Palestine Liberation Organization – a murderous foreign terrorist organization that has carried out countless terrorist attacks and plane hijackings, was arrested by ICE officers Oct. 28 in Dallas, Texas.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization is the official representative of Palestinians internationally.
Officials also stated: “Shockingly, Tarabishi has been permitted to remain in the U.S. illegally for nearly two decades despite being ordered removed from the U.S. by both an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Shockingly, the Obama administration went as far as to proactively file a joint motion to dismiss the immigration case against Tarabishi on Aug. 10, 2011, despite the fact that he had admitted to being a member of a foreign terrorist organization and was already ordered removed.
“ICE’s successful arrest of Tarabishi shows clear evidence of the game-changing impact the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts are having to restore common sense to our immigration system, strengthen national security and public safety in our country by arresting terrorists like this where prior administration’s recklessly gambled with the safety of all Americans by allowing foreign terrorists, transnational gang members, and other violent criminal aliens to remain in the U.S.”
Tarabishi’s family has pushed back on the claims.
“In the months since abducting Maher, ICE has made various untrue, defamatory claims about him to justify keeping this father away from his son during his last months of life. This was done to Maher for the “crime” of being an immigrant who lived a life of peace, honesty and sacrifice in this country, while complying with immigration authorities in good faith and without fail,” The family said in a press release.