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When Maher Tarabishi<\/span> got a phone call from his family on January 23, he expected an update on his son\u2019s health. Tarabishi had been held for three months at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, and his 30-year-old son Wael\u2019s health had been on the decline. Still, Tarabishi was hoping for a full recovery.<\/p>\n The news, though, was not good: Wael had passed away. Maher Tarabishi was in disbelief, breaking down on the phone, according to an account of the call from his daughter-in-law Shahd Arnaout.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t die without me,\u201d Tarabishi wailed. \u201cThere is no way he died without waiting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t die without me. There is no way he died without waiting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Destroyed, Tarabishi had one hope. His attorney, Ali Elhorr, had already been advocating for his release to take care of Wael, but shifted his efforts to securing a release for Wael\u2019s funeral, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday before being moved to Thursday.<\/p>\n At first, ICE officials seemed like they might give in: preliminary discussion included conditions for a temporary release, including scheduling and moving Tarabishi to a detention center that was closer to the funeral home.<\/p>\n \u201cInitial steps in the process had already begun when I received a call from the ICE officer with whom I had been in contact,\u201d Elhorr said in a release. \u201cThe officer informed me that his director stepped in and told him that Maher would not be allowed to attend Wael\u2019s burial. This was the final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n ICE did not respond to inquiries from The Intercept, but told<\/a> the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, \u201cICE has NOT received a formal request from anyone to attend funeral services.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the time Tarabishi was arrested by ICE, he had been the primary caregiver for Wael. As he was taken, Tarabishi\u2019s first thought was, \u201cWho will take care of my son?\u201d according to Arnaout\u2019s recollection of conversations with her father-in-law.<\/p>\n Wael was born in Arlington, Texas, in 1995, a year after his family immigrated to the U.S. from Jordan. When the boy was 4, he had been diagnosed with Pompe disease, a rare metabolic disease that causes rapid muscular deterioration, according to his family. At the time, the doctor told the family that he might not live past 5, Arnaout said.<\/p>\n \u201cMaher kept him alive,\u201d Araout said. \u201cWael could not eat or drink by himself. He could not use his arms or legs. So Maher was all of that for him, his lungs, his legs, his arms, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Tarabishi, meanwhile, had applied for asylum after coming from Jordan, but he was denied. Nonetheless, he went to his regular ICE check-ins once a year for more than a decade and a half. When reports of people being arrested at these check-ins became widespread last year, his family was concerned. Tarabishi, however, was not.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had too much faith in the system,\u201d Arnaout said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have any criminal record. He thought they put an appointment for him because they saw he is doing everything right to stay in the country, following all the rules. He never missed a single appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the officers at the local ICE office knew about Wael\u2019s condition and would frequently ask Tarabishi about his son.<\/p>\n On January 23, the day Wael died, Elhorr had filed a motion to reopen Tarabishi\u2019s case with the Board of Immigration Appeals. Elhorr had discovered that the purported attorney who filed Tarabishi\u2019s original asylum application \u201cwas fraudulently practicing law without a license,\u201d the family said in a press release.<\/p>\n In an earlier statement, ICE had said that Maher belonged to the \u201cPalestine Liberation Organization\u201d and was a \u201ccriminal alien.\u201d While the United States has designated the PLO as a terrorist organization in the past, it is not in the country\u2019s designated list<\/a> of terrorist organizations currently. Nonetheless, the family denied that Tarabishi had any affiliation with the group.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has done no criminal activity,\u201d Arnaout said. \u201cHe is an electronic engineer who loves fixing people\u2019s laptops. He is a simple man.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Primary Caretaker<\/strong><\/h2>\n