{"id":437086,"date":"2026-01-29T15:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437086\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:33:15","slug":"a-texas-man-detained-by-ice-was-his-disabled-sons-sole-caregiver-his-son-will-be-laid-to-rest-without-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437086\/","title":{"rendered":"A Texas man detained by ICE was his disabled son\u2019s sole caregiver. His son will be laid to rest without him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Wael Tarabishi\u2019s family had hoped his father and primary caretaker could be present as they say their final goodbyes to the 30-year-old at his funeral on Thursday.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials denied the family\u2019s request to temporarily release his father, Maher Tarabishi, for the service in Joshua, Texas, the family\u2019s attorney said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now the family is preparing to bury Wael, who died last Friday, after spending his life suffering from a serious and rare inherited disorder called Pompe disease<\/a> that leads to severe muscle weakness and heart problems, without Maher.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are profoundly disappointed with ICE\u2019s decision to deny Maher Tarabishi the opportunity to say his final goodbye to his beloved son, Wael,\u201d Attorney Ali Elhorr said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cToday\u2019s decision to keep him from saying goodbye is a reflection of the tragic lack of humanity by those in charge.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In a separate statement, family members said preventing Maher from burying his son \u201cwould only deepen the wounds left by the pain of these past few months.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n ICE\u2019s decision came three months after Maher was detained during a routine immigration check-in in Dallas. Since then, his family has held a news conference<\/a> and publicly pleaded for federal immigration officials to temporarily release him from the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas.\n <\/p>\n

\n At first, they hoped Maher could be released to provide the 24-hour specialized care for Wael that only he was trained to do. But in Wael\u2019s last days, they were holding hope Maher could at least say goodbye to his son in person.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Tuesday, a day before Wael\u2019s funeral was originally planned, Elhorr said he had discussed the funeral\u2019s logistics and ICE\u2019s conditions to allow Maher\u2019s attendance with immigration officials \u201cwho had shown the willingness to facilitate Maher\u2019s supervised release,\u201d but ultimately, declined to do so.\n <\/p>\n

\"Maher<\/p>\n

\n ICE detention standards allow for detainees to \u201cmaintain ties with their families through emergency staff-escorted trips into the community to visit critically ill members of the immediate family or to attend their funerals,\u201d according to its website.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment about the decision.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shahd Arnaout, Wael\u2019s sister-in-law, told CNN the family struggled to care for Wael with his father in ICE custody.\n <\/p>\n

\n Maher was the one who bathed Wael, changed his clothing, and helped administer food and medication through a tube, Arnaout said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe was the one who knew, when his fever went up, what to give him right away,\u201d Arnaout told CNN. \u201cWe had to ask multiple doctors to come and see what (medicines) to give Wael because Maher was not there to react quickly.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n At a December news conference, a statement from Wael was read aloud in which he described the relationship with his father.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s the one who keeps me alive when I\u2019m at my weakest,\u201d Wael said in the statement, CNN affiliate WFAA<\/a> reported. \u201cWithout him, I am nothing. Without him, I cannot survive.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Maher<\/p>\n

\n In the weeks following Maher\u2019s detention, Arnaout said Wael\u2019s health significantly declined as he developed life-threatening health complications.\n <\/p>\n

\n He was rushed to the hospital twice: once in November with sepsis and pneumonia, and again in December with a stomach infection caused by a displaced feeding tube, his family said in a statement. He remained in the ICU at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center<\/a> in a suburb of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area for the next month, the family said. He died on January 23.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the hours before he died, Wael\u2019s wish was to see his father again. On the day he passed away, Elhorr went to meet with an ICE official to ask if Maher could come to the hospital to see his son, the family said in a statement.<\/a> That request was denied, they said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to questions about whether the family had requested his temporary release in two separate occasions and the reason why it was denied.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Arnaout said. \u201cOur lives have been turned upside down.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Maher arrived to the United States in 1994 from Kuwait, where he was living at the time, on a tourist visa as he fled violence, Arnaout said. Several family members were already living in the United States, she said. Maher\u2019s native country is Jordan.\n <\/p>\n

\n For many years, he made a living as an IT engineer but stopped working in 2019 to take care of his son full-time, Arnaout said.\n <\/p>\n

\n He was detained in October during a scheduled check-in at an ICE facility in Dallas, his family and their attorney said.\n <\/p>\n

\n McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said in a statement to CNN Maher had been allowed to remain in the US illegally for nearly 20 years despite being ordered by an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals to leave.\n <\/p>\n

\n An immigration court ordered Maher\u2019s removal in 2006, but he was allowed to stay in the US because he was his son\u2019s caretaker and was required to attend annual check-ins with ICE, Elhorr said. It\u2019s unclear how soon he could be deported to Jordan, Elhorr said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last week, Elhorr said he filed a motion to reopen Maher\u2019s case after discovering the \u2018attorney\u2019 who filed Maher\u2019s original asylum application was fraudulently practicing law without a license, he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN was unable to obtain documents about Maher\u2019s removal order, case dismissal and conditions outlining his stay in the US.\n <\/p>\n

\"Maher<\/p>\n

\n In her statement, McLaughlin referred to Maher as a \u201cself-admitted member\u201d of the Palestine Liberation Organization, also known as PLO, a political umbrella body that has been recognized by the United Nations and the Arab League as the \u201csole legitimate representative\u201d of the Palestinian people since 1974.\n <\/p>\n

\n In August, the Trump administration announced it was \u201cdenying and revoking visas\u201d<\/a> from members of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, accusing them of taking steps that \u201cmaterially contributed to Hamas\u2019s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Arnaout said the family denies Maher was a part of the Palestine Liberation Organization.\n <\/p>\n

\n Maher has always followed the proper guidelines to stay in the US and showed up to every required check-in with immigration authorities, Arnaout said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The family has spoken with Maher since he\u2019s been in ICE custody, but it\u2019s challenging because they usually must wait for him to get access to a phone and call them, Arnaout said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s not doing good,\u201d she said. \u201cHe wants to get out as soon as possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Arnaout believes the absence of Maher took a mental toll on Wael which led to his health declining.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMentally, he started to recognize that \u2018I don\u2019t feel safe anymore,\u2019\u201d Arnaout said about her brother-in-law. \u201cThe one person that makes me feel safe and gives me hope that I will live to the next day and makes me feel like I\u2019m a normal person is not there anymore for me.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wael Tarabishi\u2019s family had hoped his father and primary caretaker could be present as they say their final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-437086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}