Wael Tarabishi’s family had hoped his father and primary carer would be present as they bid the 30-year-old a final farewell at his funeral on Thursday.
But Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials denied the family’s request to temporarily release his father, Maher Tarabishi, 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 which leads to severe muscle weakness and heart problems, without Maher.
“We are very disappointed with 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 on the part of those responsible.”
In a separate statement, the family members said that preventing Maher from burying his son “would only increase the wounds left by the pain of these last 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 news conference and publicly asked federal immigration officials to temporarily release him from the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas.
At first, they hoped Maher could be freed to provide the 24-hour specialist care for Wael that only he was trained to do. But in Wael’s final days, they were holding out hope that Maher could at least say goodbye to his son in person.
On Tuesday, a day before Wael’s funeral was originally planned, Elhorr said he had discussed the logistics of the funeral and ICE’s conditions for allowing Maher’s attendance with immigration officials “who had indicated a willingness to facilitate Maher’s supervised release,” but ultimately, they declined to do so.
Maher Tarabish, Left, seen with his late son Wael Tarabish, right. – @FreemaHertaraBish/Instagram
ICE’s detention standards allow detainees to “maintain ties to their families through staff-escorted emergency trips into the community to visit critically ill immediate family members or to attend their 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.
Maher was the one who washed Wael, changed his clothes, and helped administer food and medication through a tube, Arnaout said.
“He was the one who knew, when his fever rose, what to give him immediately,” Arnaout told CNN. “We had to ask several doctors to come and see what (medicines) to give Wael because Maher was not there to react quickly.”
At a news conference in December, a statement from Wael was read aloud in which he described the relationship with his father.
“It’s what 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 live.”
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 hospitalized 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 in suburban Dallas-Ft. Metro area worth for the next month, the family said. He died on January 23rd.
In the hours before he died, Wael’s wish was to see his father again. On the day he died, Elhorr went to meet with an ICE officer to ask if Maher could come to the hospital to see his son, the family said in a statement. That request was denied, they said.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to questions about whether the family requested his temporary release on two separate occasions and why it was denied.
“It’s unbelievable,” Arnaout said. “Our lives have been turned upside down.”
Father’s trip to America
Maher came to the United States in 1994 from Kuwait, where he was living at the time, on a tourist visa as he fled the violence, Arnaout said. Several family members were already living in the United States, she said. Maher’s native country is Jordan.
For many years, he lived 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 that Maher had been allowed to remain in the United States illegally for nearly 20 years despite being ordered by an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals to leave.
An immigration court ordered Maher’s removal in 2006, but he was allowed to stay in the United States because he was the custodian of his son and was required to attend annual check-ins with ICE, Elhorr said. It is unclear how soon he may be deported to Jordan, Elhorr said.
Last week, Elhorr said he filed a motion to reopen Maher’s case after discovering that the “lawyer” who filed Maher’s original asylum application was fraudulently practicing law without a license, he said.
CNN was unable to obtain documents regarding Maher’s removal order, the dismissal of the case and the conditions that describe his stay in the United States.
Maher Tarabishi, right, came to the United States in 1994. He was his son Wael Tarabishi’s primary caregiver for 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, an umbrella political 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 that it was “denying and revoking visas” from members of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, accusing them of taking steps that “materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of cease-fire talks in Gaza.”
Arnaout said that the family denies that Maher was part of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Maher always followed the proper guidelines for staying in the United States and showed up for every required check-in with immigration authorities, Arnaout said.
The family has spoken with Maher since he was in ICE custody, but it’s challenging because they usually have to wait for him to have access to a phone and call them, Arnaout said.
“He’s not doing well,” she said. “He wants to get out as soon as possible.”
Arnaout believes that Maher’s absence had a mental effect on Wael which caused his health to decline.
“Mentally, he started to recognize that ‘we don’t feel safe'” said Arnaout about her father-in-law. “The only person who makes me feel safe and gives me hope to 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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