Morton Grove, Illinois: Family Seeks Investigation Into Ayaz Ahmed's Death After Deportation Flight

Ayaz Ahmed, 61, of Morton Grove, died after a deportation flight to Pakistan in July. On Tuesday, his family attorney, Hashim Siddique, spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times, and CAIR-Chicago called for an independent criminal investigation into his death and ICE medical standards. ICE says Ahmed was medically cleared, got his scheduled medication, and was no longer in its custody when he died.

Ahmed moved his family from Pakistan to the Chicago suburbs in 1997 and spent 30 years here, running local businesses. His children say he never had a police encounter, according to an ABC7 Chicago investigation. ICE agents arrested him on June 3, 2026, for overstaying a visitor visa, and he was held at the Clay County Justice Center in Indiana. He had type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, a possible heart condition and other chronic conditions, and needed a breathing device, nasal spray and medication, Siddique told the Sun-Times.

A family that asked for a fast deportation

Ahmed's family hired Siddique to expedite the deportation, not fight it, because they feared his health would deteriorate in custody. Around June 10, Siddique raised the family's medication concerns with the detention center, and an officer assured him Ahmed was receiving it. Ahmed told him the same, but could not confirm it was happening daily. On June 18, Siddique learned Ahmed had been placed in medical isolation. His daughter, Saleha Sahar, told ABC7 her father said he could not breathe and could not sleep, and said, "Just send me home."

Transfers, then a 38 hour flight

Before the flight, Ahmed was transferred through three facilities, Siddique said: Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana on July 24, Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, three days later, and Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 29. Siddique does not know whether the medication traveled with Ahmed at each stop.

ABC7 reported, using FlightRadar24 data, that a GlobalX charter plane left Fort Worth, Texas, on July 29 and stopped in Maine, Iceland, Bulgaria and Georgia before landing in Pakistan about 38 hours later. Fellow deportees told the family his condition deteriorated on the flight and he fainted in line after landing, with no medical help provided, ABC7 reported. The postmortem report from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad states Ahmed was "brought dead" at 11:43 a.m. on July 31, with no signs of torture, assault or strangulation found. For eight days, his children could not locate him.

Two accounts, one unanswered set of questions

ICE declined an interview with ABC7. The agency said no medical emergencies occurred on the flight, no signs of distress were observed, and no one required hospitalization on landing. ICE called claims of neglect or mistreatment "categorically FALSE," and said that after his transfer to Pakistani custody it no longer had authority over his care or access to his records. Former acting ICE director John Sandweg told ABC7 a flight carrying a person in medical crisis would have turned back.

Siddique said Ahmed's son emailed that his father died seven hours after landing in Islamabad, and the family is exploring legal action. CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab said: "This heartbreaking and entirely preventable tragedy lays bare the harrowing human cost of rushed, aggressive immigration enforcement." His son, Jawwad Mehmood, told ABC7: "He did not deserve to die just because he didn't have a green card."