Disabled son dies after father was detained by ICE
Executive summary
Wael Tarabishi, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen who suffered from Pompe disease, died after roughly a month-long hospitalization; his family says his condition worsened after his father and primary caregiver, Maher Tarabishi, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a routine check-in Oct. 28, 2025 [1] [2]. The family publicly blames ICE for separating the pair and says they repeatedly urged the agency to release Maher so he could care for or be with his son as Wael’s health declined; ICE has been reported to have offered responses but those are not fully detailed in the available reporting [3] [4] [5].
1. What happened: timeline and medical facts
According to family statements and multiple local reports, Maher Tarabishi was detained during a routine immigration check-in on Oct. 28 and was held at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility; weeks later Wael, who suffered from Pompe disease, was hospitalized multiple times, spent about a month in the ICU after complications and ultimately died of Pompe-related complications on Jan. 25, 2026, nearly three months after his father’s detention [2] [1] [3].
2. Family’s account and demands for release
The family says Maher was Wael’s primary caregiver for decades and that after his detention Wael’s health deteriorated rapidly; relatives and advocates publicly demanded ICE release Maher to attend to his son and to be with him before he died and asked the agency to allow him to attend the funeral [3] [6] [7]. Family members and supporters framed the case as an urgent humanitarian plea and directly blamed the separation for contributing to Wael’s death, with relatives saying “I blame ICE” and asserting that having his father present would have changed outcomes [4] [3].
3. ICE’s role, public statements and reporting gaps
Local outlets note ICE was contacted and that the reporting was updated to include ICE comment, but the publicly available stories in the packet do not reproduce a full ICE explanation of its actions or any medical evaluation linking detention policy to the death; one article flags that the family alleges ICE made “untrue, defamatory claims” after Maher’s arrest, but those specific claims and ICE’s full public justification or internal records are not included in the available reporting [5] [4]. Without direct ICE records or medical logs in these reports, the causal link between detention and death rests primarily on family testimony and the chronology of events rather than independently verified agency decisions or clinical cause-of-death attribution in the public record [1] [3].
4. Broader context and competing narratives
Reports place this case in a wider national pattern of anguish around immigration enforcement and family separations: Texas houses a large share of ICE detainees and advocates cite other recent cases in which detained relatives were unable to be with dying family members [4] [8]. Advocates emphasize humanitarian consequences and call for policy change, while news outlets also seek comment from ICE and relay the agency’s procedural obligations; the available coverage shows a clear advocacy angle from the family and sympathetic outlets, and a duty to note that formal investigations or agency explanations are not fully present in the cited reporting [3] [5].
5. What can be said with confidence — and what remains uncertain
It is documented that Wael Tarabishi died of complications related to Pompe disease after a period of hospitalization and that his father was detained by ICE months earlier and served as his primary caregiver, prompting family pleas for release and public anger aimed at ICE [1] [2] [3]. What remains unresolved in the reporting provided is whether ICE’s detention decisions or any specific agency actions directly caused or materially accelerated Wael’s medical decline in a way that would be validated by medical records, oversight reviews, or ICE’s own internal documentation; such determinations are not available in the stories cited [5] [4].