Democrats and their media partners have been churning out a steady stream of sob stories with the intent to turn public opinion against the enforcement of federal immigration law, information warfare at its finest.
The latest tale that is guaranteed to tug at the heartstrings of gullible normies is that of a “severely disabled” 30-year-old man in Texas who died from his condition, with his family’s grieving being exacerbated by the patriarch not being able to attend his son’s funeral because he was under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
“A family in Arlington, Texas, grieved as they laid 30-year-old Wael Tarabishi to rest. His father, Maher Tarabishi, however, was not at the funeral. Instead, he was at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center nearly three hours away in Anson, Texas,” ABC News reported.
A Texas family grieved as they laid 30-year-old Wael Tarabishi to rest. His father, Maher Tarabishi, however, was not at the funeral. Instead, he was at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center nearly three hours away in Anson, Texas.https://t.co/tu40mVCsNI pic.twitter.com/ewaUM6Cb4Y
— ABC News (@ABC) February 4, 2026
Wael Tarabishi suffered from the debilitating effects of Advanced Pompe Disease, with his father “by his side through it all, and has been described as his son’s arms, legs, and lungs because of how involved and essential he was in his life.”
But dad was unable to pay his final respects in person along with the rest of Wael’s “heartbroken” clan because when the Jordanian native who overstayed his tourist visa in 1994 visited the Dallas field office for his annual check-in as required by the supervision order, he was taken into custody by agents who according to the outlet, was cuffed and told to “shut up and sit down” even as he pleaded with them.
“After Wael’s death on Jan. 23, heartbroken family and supporters desperately tried to get ICE to allow Maher to attend his son’s funeral on Thursday. Late Tuesday night, ICE gave the final word that Maher would be denied permission,” according to the report.
ABC News cites an Instagram account said to belong to “family and advocates” of Maher Tarabishi as the basis for its reporting, hardly an unbiased source.
“America speaks of freedom and family values, yet it stole Maher from his dying son,” the detainee’s daughter-in-law, Shahd Arnaout, said on Instagram. “A funeral without Maher!!!!! This is a human rights crime.”
“With everything Wael went through and all the hardship that he had, he always cared about his family. He always made us laugh,” she said, according to ABC. “Him and his father, it wasn’t just a normal relationship between any father and a son. No, he was his best friend. He was his caregiver. He was Dad. He was everything for him.”
ABC’s report played up the human angle with the one-sided slop that omits critical details, as is always the case with the activist media, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filled in the blanks.
“FACT CHECK. Maher Mohd Tarabishi is a criminal alien and self-admitted member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was arrested by ICE officers Oct. 28 in Dallas, Texas,” the agency said in a Wednesday post to X, sharing ABC’s context-free piece.
FACT CHECK. Maher Mohd Tarabishi, is a criminal alien and self-admitted member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was arrested by ICE officers Oct. 28 in Dallas, Texas.⁰⁰Shockingly, Tarabishi has been permitted to remain in the U.S. illegally for nearly two decades… https://t.co/kXybZiWV3z
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) February 4, 2026
“Shockingly, Tarabishi has been permitted to remain in the U.S. illegally for nearly two decades despite being ordered removed from the U.S. by both an Immigration Judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Obama administration went as far as to proactively file a joint motion to dismiss the immigration case against Tarabishi on Aug. 10, 2011, despite the fact that he had admitted to being a member of a foreign terrorist organization and was already ordered removed,” DHS stated.
X users also called B.S. on ABC:
Leaving out a little context it seems (as usual) https://t.co/o3f37slyDV
— MaryLouWestin (@LouWestin) February 4, 2026
ABC is using the death of a severely handicapped person to emotionally bully you into sympathy for his terrorist father. https://t.co/xVhgJOfKOy
— Hap The Magic Dragon
(@HapTheDragon) February 4, 2026
You left something out about daddy
pic.twitter.com/UZhC4JVuA4
— Robyn Rodriguez (@RRodriguez87985) February 4, 2026
The same people who let the elderly die in nursing homes alone and wouldn’t let families bury their dead during COVID now want us to feel sorry for the terrorist-linked illegal alien ordered removed 20 years ago.
— Brittany Hughes (@RealBrittHughes) February 4, 2026
Oh crap you just got fact checked!https://t.co/tERBdkRFnb
— GenXFatBastard
(@GenXFatBastard) February 4, 2026
Yeah, actions have consequences. If he was a US citizen and an incarcerated felon he wouldn’t have been there either.
— Christopher Badgley (@CJBadge) February 4, 2026
“ICE is responsible of the death of Wael Tarabishi. They may not kill him with a bullet, but they killed him inside,” ABC News quoted Shahd, an exclamation point on their biased reporting and another prime example of why the vast majority of Americans now distrust the mainstream media, which functions as an unofficial propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
