Loved ones are wondering what happened after a man who was being held in ICE custody at a Philadelphia detention center died from a reported drug withdrawal.
On Jan. 6, Parady La, 46, left his Upper Darby home to pickup groceries and that was the last time his family would see him alive.
When La was picked up by ICE, his family said that they had no idea and they searched for him for hours before they got the call learning he was detained.
Officers at the detention center reported that they found La unresponsive in his cell the next day, did CPR on him and administered several doses of Narcan before calling for medical assistance.
First responders arrived to the detention center and took La to a local hospital where he was held in critical condition, officials said.
La was at the hospital for two days before he died around 3:22 a.m. on Jan. 9, officials explained.
“My family who lives in Upper Darby are mourning this loss. Me? I’m just trying to figure out what going on,” his nephew Michael La, who lives in Florida, told NBC10.
According to ICE, La came to the United States in 1981 as a refugee before becoming a permanent resident one year later.
“He came here at two years old,” Michael said. “It’s a Cambodian man when in reality, no, he’s an American man. He’s never been to Cambodia. Never stepped foot in Cambodia.”
La lost his legal status after allegedly committing several crimes between 1994 and 2022, ICE reported.
“No matter what side you’re on, you can clearly see that they’re trying to dehumanize somebody,” Michael told NBC10.
Darienne Dorazio has been friends with La for 25 years and never imagined someone she knows would go through something like this.
“Parady was just a really sweet guy. He would take me shopping. He loved fashion. He was always the best dressed. In the group of us, he was the quiet reserved one,” Dorazio told NBC10. “I know so many immigrants growing up in the Upper Darby area. I knew that this was going to come here. And I never, ever suspected that it would be this horrific or that I was just praying that it wouldn’t be somebody that I knew that had to experience it. So it’s, it’s tragic.”
NBC10 has reached out to ICE regarding this case and we have not yet heard back.
