For years, Maher Tarabishi kept his disabled son alive.
A chronic muscular disease diagnosed when he was a child had confined Wael Tarabishi to his bed and forced him to depend on a feeding tube for survival. His father became his primary caregiver, doing whatever he needed, whenever he needed it.
The disease left Wael unable to eat, drink or walk, so the feeding tube was his lifeline. When it became clogged or dirty, Maher would clean it and could change it in an emergency. When Wael needed medication, Maher crushed the pills up finely, added a little water, and injected them into the feeding tube with a syringe. Several times a day, Maher used a suction device to remove saliva and mucus from Wael’s mouth to keep him from choking.
But when the end finally came, Maher was not at his son’s side. He was in a detention center more than three hours from the family’s home in Arlington, Texas, the same facility where he has been held since he was arrested during a routine check-in with federal immigration officials last October.
His family had pleaded for the government to release him on humanitarian grounds so he could continue his son’s care, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied the request. When Wael died on Jan. 23, federal officials barred Tarabishi from performing a final paternal act for his son: They refused to let him go to the funeral.
“ICE is responsible for the death of Wael,” said his sister-in-law, Shahd Arnaout, who watched his health rapidly deteriorate in his father’s absence.