Editor's note: Patch reported Wednesday morning that a woman who was denied a return flight from Iraq to the United States died a day after she was stopped because of President Trump's travel ban. The Patch report was based on reporting by WJBK-TV, which has since reported that it has confirmed the woman died days before the ban went into effect. An updated story is below.

(Updated) DETROIT, MI — A Detroit man who said his mother died in Iraq a day after she was stopped from boarding a flight in Iraq Friday has recanted his story, WJBK-TV reported. Mike Hager said his mother, a green card-holder, fell ill while visiting family in Iraq, and he and other family members were trying to fly her back to the United States for medical treatment when they were stopped at the airport under President Donald Trump's travel ban.

According to the report from the TV station, the leader of a Dearborn mosque said the woman died before the ban was put in place.

Man who claimed mom died in Iraq after Trump's ban lied, Imam confirms https://t.co/yZGlXXCmCp

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) February 1, 2017 Hager and his family have lived in Michigan for more than 20 years and are legal residents. As a U.S. citizen, Hager was allowed to board the U.S.-bound flight after Trump's order, which restricts travel of nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, but other family members were turned away, even though they have green cards.



The family fled Iraq in the early 1990s and lived in refugee camps for four years before coming to the United States in 1995 under the State Department's refugee resettlement program. Over the years, they had traveled back and forth between the countries to visit family and had never encountered a problem until Friday.

In the original report, Hager said his mother, Naimma, died a day after she was told she couldn't return to the United States. "They destroyed us," Hager told WJBK-TV. "I went with my family, I came back by myself. They destroyed our family.

"I really believe this in my heart: If they would have let us in, my mom — she would have made it and she would have been sitting right here next to me. She's gone because of (President Trump)," he told WJBK. See Also: Detroit Area Families 'In Limbo' After Travel Ban: Lawsuit Hager's niece and two nephews, who also have green cards, remain in Iraq and he is unsure when, or if, they will be allowed to return to the United States. Though his family wasn't among named plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Arab American Civil Rights League in U.S. District Court in Detroit, they are among as many as 100,000 green card-holders nationwide who may be trapped overseas and unable to join their families, Nabih Ayad, the lead attorney in the case, said at a news conference.

Trump's executive order signed Friday bans nationals from seven countries from entering the United States for 90 days. Trump's order also bans the resettlement of refugees for four months and indefinitely suspends the entry of Syrian refugees.