Chicago-area father dies shortly after ICE's deportation process to Pakistan

CHICAGO: When a suburban family’s 61-year-old father was arrested by federal immigration agents this past summer in Morton Grove, the patriarch and his children accepted his fate and tried everything they could to expedite his deportation.

But after a 38-hour flight on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-chartered plane, Ayaz Ahmed was dead.

And his family says months later, they are still searching for answers as to what happened, who was responsible, and what could have been done differently to keep their mentor and father alive after he voluntarily agreed to be removed from the U.S.

A former head of ICE, along with international human rights law experts, told the ABC7 I-Team the case raises serious questions over the government’s current detention standards and deportation practices.

A spokesperson for ICE tells the I-Team, “Any claims of neglect or mistreatment,” while Ahmed was in its care “are categorically FALSE.”

Witnesses who were shackled beside Ahmed, both on the flight and after, say there were signs Ahmed needed help, but no medical aid was rendered.

The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has consistently said its immigration enforcement efforts are targeting the “worst of the worst.”

But for their father Ahmed, his children say that rang hollow as he had no criminal history and was a productive member of the many Chicago communities he lived and worked in since the late nineties.

“I lost somebody that was most precious to me in the world,” said Ahmed’s son, Jawwad Mehmood.

“He was like our warrior, you know?” said Ahmed’s daughter, Saleha Sahar. “He lived and breathed for his kids.”

For siblings Mehmood and Sahar, images of their father have now become invaluable; birthday parties, trips to downtown Chicago and the Adler Planetarium; memories of their mentor and dad, Ayaz.

Ahmed and his children moved from Pakistan to the Chicago suburbs in 1997. For nearly three decades, his children say he owned several local businesses and had never encountered law enforcement until this past summer.

On June 3, Ahmed was detained by federal immigration agents in the Morton Grove area for overstaying a visitor’s visa. He was booked into ICE detention at the Clay County Justice Center in Indiana.

Rather than fight his arrest, Ahmed and his family decided to accept his fate, and focus on expediting his removal from the U.S. as quickly as possible.

His children say Ahmed had several underlying health conditions that made his ICE detention risky.

“We were in contact with ICE every second, even the consulate made them aware of his medical condition,” Sahar said.

Ahmed’s children shared with the I-Team emails sent to officials at ICE, Clay County, and the Pakistan Consulate in Chicago. Among those emails was a letter from Ahmed’s doctor, explaining his “multiple chronic medical conditions” including type 2 diabetes, and the medications he needed daily.

But Ahmed’s family said his health behind bars was deteriorating fast.

“In his two months of detention, all we witnessed our father do is suffer,” said his son Mehmood. “They put him in isolation because he requested medical attention.”

Clay County officials confirmed Ahmed was held in “medical isolation,” and they couldn’t comment further or share jail records due to health privacy laws.

Ahmed’s daughter said she knew her father’s health was at risk.

“All he would say is, ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t sleep,'” Sahar said, adding her father told her, “‘The circumstances here are very tough. Just send me home.'”

Sahar and Mehmood contacted lawmakers and the Pakistan Consulate, trying to expedite his deportation. They even offered to buy the plane ticket themselves.

Finally, in late July, his children said Ahmed called to say he was on his way to Pakistan.

“He said, ‘Son, I think they’re going to put me on a plane. So, I just want to say I love you all very much'” Mehmood recounted. “‘May God protect you.’ Those were his last words.”

For eight days, Ahmed’s children had no contact from their father. He disappeared from ICE’s detainee locator website. And the family said the Pakistan Chicago embassy had no information on Ahmed’s whereabouts.

“Everybody was questioning, ‘Where is our father?'” Mehmood said.

Then, on Aug 3, Ahmed’s family in Pakistan called his children to share the worst news possible: Their father was dead.

“This is not a convict,” Sahar told the I-Team, fighting back tears. “The man worked, poured his sweat into this country. And to be deported the way he was.”

What happened to Ayaz Ahmed? His children and the ABC7 I-Team have been trying to answer that question for months.

FlightRadar24 data analyzed by the I-Team shows it was July 29 at 7:25 a.m. when a GlobalX flight chartered by ICE took off from Fort Worth, Texas.

The 38-hour flight stopped in Maine, then Iceland, Bulgaria, and Georgia, before landing at a Pakistani Air Force Base on July 30 at 9:41pm.

People who were deported and on the same flight as Ahmed said they could see his health deteriorating over the course of the flight, and upon landing in Pakistan, according to recorded interviews with Ahmed’s family.

“He was in such a bad condition, he just couldn’t talk,” said one person who was deported from the U.S., who agreed to share what they saw if the I-Team did not share their name, as they fear retaliation from federal authorities, including the Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) in Pakistan.

“The moment we got off the plane, they made us stand in a straight line. In that straight line, alone, he [Ahmed] fell,” said one witness. “He fainted right then and there; I was standing next to him.”

“The moment he fell, he should have been looked upon. All they did was take him, took him, and put him in the FIA offices, where they interrogated us,” the witness said.

“Uncle was a good man,” the witness recounted. “Even at the last minute, he gave me a hug.”

Another witness, speaking in Hindi and who also asked not to be identified, said Ahmed urinated himself on the flight by the time it landed in Iceland, one of the first stops of the trip.

“The witness said that my father, you know, his health was deteriorating even inside the plane,” Mehmood said. “And no medical attention was given.”

A spokesperson for ICE declined our requests for an interview, but in a written statement said, “No medical emergencies occurred during the flight, no signs of medical distress were observed, and no individuals required hospitalization.”

The family obtained a copy of a postmortem report prepared by the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad and shared with the I-Team.

According to the report, Ahmed was “brought dead” to the facility by FIA officials on July 31 at 11:43am; 14 hours after the flight from the U.S. landed in Pakistan.

PIMS doctors wrote there was, “no sign of torture / assault noted on body. No sign of strangulation or hanging noted on body.”

All final reports into Ahmed’s cause-of-death were “handed over to FIA officials.”

In a peculiar twist, Ahmed’s family says FIA officials paid all expenses for their father’s burial in Karachi, where he was born, but wouldn’t provide any more information about what happened.

Neither the FIA nor PIMS responded to the I-Team’s questions or repeated requests for comment.

A spokesperson for ICE said, “[Ahmed] received all his scheduled medications during the flight. ICE has no insight into the circumstances of Mr. Ahmed’s death after his arrival in Pakistan.”

ICE told the I-Team once a person is “repatriated and transferred to the custody of their home government,” they are no longer in ICE custody, and “ICE does not have authority over their care or access to their medical or official records.”

Former DHS officials point to the recent ramp up of immigration enforcement efforts as likely playing a role in Ahmed’s death.

“When you’re under this pressure to continue these removals, it forces you to make decisions I don’t think you otherwise would have,” said John Sandweg, who previously served as general counsel and acting director for ICE.

Sandweg served as acting director during a previous record-setting peak of deportations during the Obama administration.

“I genuinely believe ICE agents and ICE personnel try to provide the best care possible. However, that is very… it is very difficult,” Sandweg said. “If ICE wasn’t under this political pressure, and someone was having a medical crisis on a flight like this, the flight would have turned back to make sure the individual got the medical care he needed.”

Hashim Siddique was the family’s attorney and helped communicate with ICE, Clay County and the Pakistan Consulate prior to Ahmed’s deportation and death.

Siddique believes there are many unanswered questions surrounding what happened to Ahmed.

“The exact passing of Mr. Ahmed, and his lack of identification or other belongings, draws into question whether ICE actually had his medication en route from ICE facility, to the airport, on the plane, or whether any medical aid was administered during the medical emergency,” Siddique said by email.

As the I-Team previously reported, Ahmed isn’t the only Chicagoan to die during the enhanced immigration enforcement operations of the second Trump administration.

Nenko Gantchev died while held in ICE detention from complications stemming from his type two diabetes. DHS attributed the death to natural causes.

Health experts have warned ICE detention death rates are nearing record highs, raising concerns over health standards.

Sitting in the family’s Schaumburg smoke shop that father and son used to run, Mehmood said his days are now weighed down by the stress of mortgages, monthly rent, and car payments his father used to be responsible for, now on his children’s shoulders.

The absence of his father is always present, Mehmood told the I-Team.

“My father gave a sacrifice for an American dream,” Mehmood said. “He did not deserve to die just because he didn’t have a green card.”

Ahmed’s children are searching for answers, and neither the Pakistan Embassy nor the U.S. government have provided them any.

“It’s barbaric,” his daughter Sahar said. “He worked so hard. For him to have gone through what he did… He did not deserve this. We didn’t deserve this.”