Wael Tarabishi’s family had hoped his father and main carer could be present when they say goodbye to the 30-year-old at his funeral on Thursday.
But Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials denied the family’s request to temporarily release their father, Maher Tarabish, for duty in Joshua, Texas, the family’s attorney said in a statement.
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 that leads to severe muscle weakness and heart problems, without Maher.
“We are deeply disappointed by ICE’s decision to deny Maher Tarabishi the opportunity to say his final goodbye to his beloved son, Wael,” attorney Ali Elhorr said in a statement Tuesday. “Today’s decision to prevent him from saying goodbye is a reflection of the tragic lack of humanity of those in power.”
In a separate statement, family members said preventing Maher from burying his son “will only deepen the wounds left by the pain of the last few months.”
ICE’s decision came three months after Maher was detained during a routine immigration check-in in Dallas. Since then, his family has held a press conference and publicly asked federal immigration officials to temporarily release him from the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas.
At first, they hoped Maher could be released to give Wael the 24-hour specialized care that only he was trained to do. But in Wael’s final days, they held out hope that Maher could at least say goodbye to his son in person.
On Tuesday, the day before Wael’s funeral was originally planned, Elhorr said he discussed funeral logistics and ICE’s conditions for allowing Maher to be present with immigration officials “who indicated their willingness to facilitate Maher’s supervised release,” but ultimately declined to do so.
Maher Tarabish, left, is pictured with his late son Wael Tarabish, right. – @FreemaHertaraBish/Instagram
ICE’s detention standards allow detainees to “maintain ties to their families by traveling to the community accompanied by emergency personnel to visit seriously ill immediate family members or attend funerals,” according to its website.
CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the decision.
His health declined without his father’s care
Shahd Arnaout, Wael’s sister-in-law, told CNN the family struggled to care for Wael with his father in ICE custody.
It was Maher who bathed Wael, changed his clothes and helped administer food and medication through a tube, Arnaout said.
“He was the one who knew, when her fever rose, what to give her right away,” Arnaout told CNN. “We had to ask several doctors to come and see what (medications) to give Wael because Maher wasn’t there to react quickly.”
At a press conference in December, a statement from Wael describing his relationship with his father was read aloud.
“He’s the one who keeps me alive when I’m at my weakest,” Wael said in the statement, CNN affiliate WFAA reported. “Without him, I am nothing. Without him I cannot survive.”
Maher Tarabish stands behind his late son Wael Tarabish in an undated photo provided by their family. – @FreemaHertaraBish/Instagram
In the weeks following Maher’s detention, Arnaout said Wael’s health declined significantly as he developed life-threatening health complications.
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 misplaced feeding tube, his family said in a statement. He remained in the ICU at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center in a suburb of Dallas-Ft. It’s worth the metro area for the next month, the family said. He died on January 23rd.
In the hours before his death, Wael’s wish was to see his father again. On the day he died, 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. The request was denied, they said.
Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to questions about whether the family had applied for temporary release on two separate occasions and why it was denied.
“It’s unbelievable,” Arnaout said. “Our lives have been turned upside down.”
A father’s journey to America
Maher arrived in the United States in 1994 from Kuwait, where he was living at the time, on a tourist visa while fleeing violence, Arnaout said. Several family members already lived in the United States, she said. Maher’s native country is Jordan.
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.
He was detained in October during a scheduled check-in at an ICE facility in Dallas, his family and their attorney said.
McLaughlin, the DHS spokesman, said in a statement to CNN. Maher was allowed to remain in the U.S. illegally for nearly 20 years despite orders from an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals to leave.
An immigration court ordered Maher removed in 2006, but he was allowed to remain in the U.S. because he was his son’s caregiver and required to attend annual background checks with ICE, Elhorr said. It is unclear how soon he could be deported to Jordan, Elhorr said.
Last week, Elhorr said he filed a motion to reopen Maher’s case after discovering that the “attorney” who filed Maher’s original asylum claim was fraudulently practicing law without a license, he said.
CNN was unable to obtain documents about Maher’s removal order, dismissal of the case and conditions outlining his stay in the US.
Maher Tarabishi, right, arrived in the United States in 1994. He was the primary caregiver for his son Wael Tarabish his entire life. – @freemahertarabishi/Instagram
In her statement, McLaughlin referred to Maher as a “self-admitted member” of the Palestine Liberation Organization, also known as the PLO, a political umbrella body that has been recognized by the United Nations and the Arab League as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people since 1974.
In August, the Trump administration announced it was “denying and revoking the visas” of members of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, accusing them of taking actions that “materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages and the disruption of ceasefire talks in Gaza.”
Arnaout said the family denies that Maher was part of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Maher always followed the proper rules for staying in the U.S. and showed up for every required check-in with immigration authorities, Arnaout said.
The family has spoken with Maher since he’s been in ICE custody, but it’s been a challenge because they usually have to wait for him to get access to a phone and call them, Arnaout said.
“It’s no good,” she said. “He wants out as soon as possible.”
Arnaout believes that Maher’s absence affected Wael mentally, causing his health to decline.
“Mentally, he started to recognize that ‘I don’t feel safe anymore,'” Arnaout said of her brother-in-law. “The one person who makes me feel safe and gives me hope that I’ll live until the next day and makes me feel like I’m a normal person is no longer there for me.”
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