Waleed

ICE deported Ayaz Ahmed to Pakistan in July. Within 14 hours of landing, Ahmed was dead — and his family says they still don’t know what happened.  Ahmed, 61, moved from Pakistan to Chicago’s suburbs in 1997 and owned several businesses. On June 3, ICE officers detained him for overstaying his visitor’s visa. His children tried to accelerate his deportation, worrying that Ahmed’s health would deteriorate if he stayed in detention. According to a doctor’s letter ABC7 reviewed, Ahmed had type 2 diabetes and needed daily medication. His lawyer told the Chicago Sun-Times that he had high blood pressure and required a breathing device and nasal spray. Around June 10, Ahmed told his lawyer he was receiving his medicine, but it was unclear how consistently.   On July 29, Ahmed and other detainees began a roughly 30-hour journey on an ICE-chartered plane, departing from Fort Worth, Texas and making stops in Iceland and Bulgaria. One witness on the flight said Ahmed had urinated on himself. ICE said that, during the flight, there were no signs of medical distress and that Ahmed received all his medication. The plane landed in Islamabad on July 30, and another witness said soon after, Ahmed “fainted right then and there.” They added, “All they did was…put him in the [Federal Investigation Agency] offices, where they interrogated us,” referring to Pakistan’s federal law enforcement body. According to the postmortem, Pakistani officials brought Ahmed to an Islamabad hospital about 14 hours after his plane landed; by then, he was already dead. His family is now asking questions of Pakistani authorities and ICE about what happened before the flight landed and during those 14 hours. ICE said any claim of neglect is “categorically FALSE” and that when an individual is transferred to their home government, they are “no longer in ICE custody” and “ICE does not have authority over their care.”