A Chicago area-man, who had no criminal record and suffered from multiple chronic health conditions, died shortly after a deportation flight to Pakistan, his family says.Sixty-one-year-old Ayaz Ahmed of Morton Grove was arrested in June by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faced deportation fo r having an expired visa, said his attorney Hashim Siddique.Ahmed’s daughter said the family tried to expedite his deportation because they feared his health would deteriorate in custody.“The fight was not about letting my dad go, the fight was literally about just getting him the medical attention he needed,” Saleah Sahar said.Sahar described her father as “the heart of the family,” a hardworking man who was close to his children. She said he worked long hours, paid his bills and called his children constantly while in detention, sometimes just to hear their voices.“Even if he had nothing to say, he would call,” she said.Ahmed had diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea. He required daily insulin, metformin, a breathing device, and nasal spray, according to his daughter. She said he had a stent placed in a coronary artery in December 2025 and had also undergone knee replacement surgery. She added that she helped him with his evening medications when they lived together.Prior to the July flight to Pakistan, Ahmed had been detained at the Clay County Detention center in Indiana, according to Siddique.Around June 10, Siddique contacted the detention center after Ahmed’s family raised concerns about whether he was receiving prescribed medication. A jail officer, Siddique shared, assured him that Ahmed was receiving them. Ayaz Ahmed’s daughter described him as “the heart of the family.”Provided by family But Ahmed’s daughter said her father repeatedly complained that he was not getting his medication. She said she mailed the medication to the detention center and emailed officials the tracking number, but Ahmed later told her a nurse said she did not have it.Sahar said her father told her he spent two days in medical isolation after experiencing breathing difficulties. He was so frightened by the experience, she said, that he promised a nurse he would stop asking for medication if she returned him to the general detention population.“I told them I will never bother them for my medication again,” Sahar recalled him saying. Sahar said an ICE officer told her Ahmed “must have misbehaved” when she called to ask why he had been placed in isolation.Siddique also spoke directly with Ahmed who told him he was getting the medication at that time but he could not confirm whether this was being done consistently.“He may have been [receiving his medication] when I spoke to him, but I don’t know if he was receiving it daily,” he said.Siddique said he notified ICE of Ahmed’s medical needs and was told those concerns would be forwarded to the detention center.Siddque said Clay County officials repeatedly told him that detainees could request medical care through electronic tablets. But Ahmed was not fluent in English and Siddique questioned whether he was able to properly use the system.Clay County officials confirmed Ahmed was in detention there but would not answer questions about his medical care.In the days before his deportation, Ahmed was transferred through several detention facilities, according to Siddique. On July 24 Ahmed was moved to Jackson Parrish Correctional Center in Louisiana, three days later he was transferred to Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, and on July 29 to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.Siddique said he does not know whether Ahmed received his prescribed medication at each facility or during the deportation flight.“He keeps getting transferred, and then I’m not sure if everything went with him,” Siddique said.Alexa Van Brunt, director of the Illinois office of the MacArthur Justice Center, is part of a legal team that recently filed a class-action lawsuit challenging conditions at Miami Correctional Facility, an Indiana prison that also holds ICE detainees. The lawsuit alleges inadequate medical care, delays in receiving prescribed medications, prolonged solitary confinement and unsanitary conditions.Van Brunt said frequent transfers between detention facilities pose another risk for people with chronic illnesses.“That’s another impediment to proper care because there’s no continuity of care for people with chronic diseases like cancer or diabetes,” she said.Siddique said he tracked Ahmed’s transfers between detention facilities through ICE notifications but received no flight itinerary or updates during the journey. ICE officials said Ahmed was medically cleared for travel and was no longer in their custody when he died.“No medical emergencies occurred during the flight, no signs of medical distress were observed, and no individuals required hospitalization upon landing,” the agency said in a statement.ICE said Ahmed boarded a flight to Pakistan on July 23 and received all of his scheduled medication during the flight.“Any claims of neglect or mistreatment are categorically FALSE,” the agency said in a statement. Ayaz Ahmed died shortly after taking a deportation flight to Pakistan, his attorney says.Provided Ahmed’s daughter said she spoke directly with people who were on the same deportation flight as her father. They told her his health deteriorated during the journey.After the plane landed, Ahmed allegedly collapsed on the tarmac in Pakistan.Sahar said the family still does not know exactly when or how Ahmed died. She said they learned of his death on Aug. 3, after spending three days trying to locate him in Pakistan. When his usual phone calls stopped, the family contacted Pakistani officials and asked relatives to help find him. A cousin eventually traveled to Islamabad, where the family learned he had died.Sahar said she and her family were unable to attend his burial in Pakistan.ICE officials said that once Ahmed was transferred to the custody of the Pakistani government, they no longer had “authority over their care or access to their medical or official records.”Ahmed’s family is exploring legal action and is still seeking a civil rights attorney, according to Siddique and Ahmed’s daughter, Saleha Sahar.Some Chicago advocates are calling for an independent criminal investigation into Ahmed’s death and ICE’s medical standards.“This heartbreaking and entirely preventable tragedy lays bare the harrowing human cost of rushed, aggressive immigration enforcement,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, said in a statement.The Pakistan Consulate in Chicago and the Pakistani Embassy did not respond to requests for comment. ...read more read less