North Texas family after son’s death: ICE ‘killed him when they took his father’
The family of an Arlington man detained by immigration authorities say the man’s disabled son died because authorities separated him from his father.
Maher Tarabishi was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 28. Tarabishi was the primary caretaker for his son Wael, who died Friday after a long battle with Pompe disease, his family said.
“I blame ICE,” said Shahd Arnaout, Maher’s daughter-in-law. “Maybe they did not kill Wael with a bullet, but they killed him when they took his father away.”
Pompe disease is a rare genetic disorder caused by a gene mutation. The disease, which causes muscle weakness that gets progressively worse with time, left Wael unable to move or breathe on his own. After Wael was diagnosed at 4 years old, his doctors did not expect him to live past the age of 10, Arnaout said, but he was able to live for more than 30 years because of Maher Tarabishi’s diligent care.
Tarabishi’s family initially demanded his release so that he could care for Wael, who they said was suffering without his father. Arnaout said Maher Tarabishi had turned his home into a mini-hospital to care for Wael. Tarabishi had also taken the lead in a recent battle with insurance to get needed infusions for Wael, she said.
“Wael is a U.S. citizen, and he was asking for his dad to be next to him while he’s dying,” Arnaout said. “His country failed him.”
Wael was twice hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center after his father was arrested. The second hospitalization, for a stomach infection causing his feeding tube to leak, lasted for 30 days until his death Friday.
Marabishi’s family is pleading with authorities to release him so he can attend his son’s funeral on Wednesday. ICE said in a statement that Tarabishi is a “criminal alien” and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which the family has denied.
“ICE has NOT received a formal request from anyone to attend funeral services,” an ICE spokesperson said in an email. Requests for temporary release are considered on a case by case basis, ICE said.
Tarabishi initially came to the U.S. in 1994 on a tourist visa. He has claimed asylum since the visa expired, and his family said he has regularly attended immigration check-ins. On Friday, Tarabishi’s attorney filed a motion to reopen his case with the Board of Immigration Appeals because his previous attorney had been practicing law without a license, his family said.
Tarabishi’s arrest is part of a larger increase in immigration enforcement during President Donald Trump’s second term. There are nearly 66,000 people in ICE detention as of Nov. 30, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Texas is housing more immigration detainees than any other state, according to TRAC, with nearly 18,000 people detained in the state as of November. Immigration authorities have come under increased scrutiny in the U.S. after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a protestor, in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Tarabishi remains detained at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson. Arnaout said they told Tarabishi that Wael had died when he called them Friday.
“He couldn’t handle it,” Arnaout said.
This post was updated Jan. 28 with comment from ICE.
This story was originally published January 27, 2026 at 1:20 PM.
