Ayaz Ahmed was arrested in June by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over an expired visa, according to his attorney, Hashim Siddique. Ahmed had no criminal record, Siddique said. His family hired the attorney to expedite the deportation because they worried his health would deteriorate in custody.

Ahmed required a breathing device, nasal spray and medication for high blood pressure and a possible heart condition, according to Siddique. Before the July flight to Pakistan, he was held at the Clay County Detention Center in Indiana.

Around June 10, Siddique contacted the facility after Ahmed's family raised concerns about whether he was receiving his prescribed medication. A jail officer assured him Ahmed was getting the medications, and Siddique spoke with Ahmed directly. But the attorney said he could not confirm the medication was administered consistently.

"He may have been [receiving his medication] when I spoke to him, but I don't know if he was receiving it daily," Siddique said. "That I don't know."

Siddique said he notified ICE of Ahmed's medical needs and was told the concerns would be forwarded to the detention center. Clay County officials repeatedly told him detainees could request care through electronic tablets, but Ahmed was not fluent in English, and Siddique questioned whether he could navigate the system.

On June 18, Siddique learned Ahmed had been placed in medical isolation. A Clay County officer cited claustrophobia, but the circumstances remain unclear. Siddique described medical isolation as similar to solitary confinement, with Ahmed alone in a cell. Clay County officials confirmed Ahmed was detained there but would not answer questions about his medical care.

In the days before deportation, Ahmed was moved through several facilities, according to Siddique. On July 24 he was transferred to Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Louisiana; three days later 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 stop or during the 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 an Indiana prison that also holds ICE detainees. The suit alleges inadequate medical care, delays in receiving prescribed medications, prolonged solitary confinement and unsanitary conditions. Van Brunt said frequent transfers between facilities pose an additional 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.

ICE said Ahmed was medically cleared for travel and was no longer in its 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 received all his scheduled medication during the flight and called any claims of neglect or mistreatment "categorically FALSE."

But after the plane landed, Ahmed collapsed on the tarmac in Pakistan, according to Siddique. The attorney said Ahmed's son emailed him saying his father died seven hours after landing in Islamabad. ICE said that once Ahmed was transferred to the custody of the Pakistani government, the agency no longer had "authority over their care or access to their medical or official records."

Ahmed's family is exploring legal action, Siddique said. Some Chicago advocates are calling for an independent criminal investigation into his death and into 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.