A 62-year-old Jordanian man who’s been in the U.S. for nearly three decades remains in detention after what his family expected to be a routine immigration check-in, leaving his severely ill son without his primary caregiver.
Maher Tarabishi entered the United States legally on a tourist visa in 1994 and has been regularly checking in with immigration authorities for years. But during his annual appointment at the ICE field office in Dallas on October 28, Tarabishi was unexpectedly detained and has now spent more than two months in an ICE detention facility, according to family members.
The detention has created a healthcare crisis for his family. Tarabishi’s 30-year-old son, Wael, suffers from Pompe disease, a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness. Since his father’s detention, Wael has been hospitalized twice, family sources confirm.
Family Left Without Critical Caregiver
Shahd Arnaout, Tarabishi’s daughter-in-law, expressed grave concerns about her husband’s deteriorating condition without his father’s specialized care. “His father knows how to keep him breathing, how to keep him alive,” she said during a recent press conference.
The family’s distress has been compounded by what they describe as the sudden nature of the detention. Maher’s cousin, Loui Tarabishi, defended his relative’s character and compliance with immigration procedures: “My uncle has never done anything wrong in this country. He has followed the laws and abided by everything. He went to his immigration appointments on the dot.”
Why now, after decades of regular check-ins? The answer may lie in shifting enforcement priorities, according to immigration experts.
Changing Immigration Enforcement
Attorney Eric Cedillo points to increased ICE operations under the Trump administration targeting deportable individuals. “And the easiest way to do that is to have people who are currently in the system. They can just utilize that, to pick those people up at their offices,” Cedillo explained.
Tarabishi had previously been denied asylum but was allowed to remain in the U.S. under a supervision order — an arrangement that Cedillo notes comes with no guarantees. “That’s totally discretionary. They can kind of revoke that at any period in time,” he noted.
Despite multiple inquiries, ICE has yet to provide any public statement or comment regarding Tarabishi’s case or the circumstances surrounding his detention. The agency’s silence has left the family with few answers as they navigate this unexpected crisis.
For now, the family continues to advocate for Maher’s release, highlighting the medical necessity of his presence for his son’s survival. Each day of detention represents not just a legal matter, but potentially life-threatening consequences for a vulnerable American family caught in immigration enforcement’s shifting landscape.
