Mike Hager, an Iraq war contractor who claimed President Donald Trump’s travel ban caused his mother’s death has been exposed as a liar. Hager’s mother actually died 5 days before the ban was implemented.

Imam Husham Al-Hussainy, the head of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in Dearborn, Mich. confirmed to reporters that Hager‘s mother died five days before Trump issued the controversial executive order.

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Al-Hussainy confirmed Hager’s 75-year-old mother had been treated in Detroit, where she lived, for kidney disease before traveling to Iraq to visit family. Hager fled his native Iraq during the Gulf War and lived as a refugee for four years before finally moving to the U.S. and gaining American citizenship.

News outlets widely reported the fake news:

“FOX 2 Detroit @FOX2News – 4:07 PM – 31 Jan 2017
Detroit family caught in Iraq travel ban, mom dies waiting to come home, reports @langeamyFOX2 http://bit.ly/2keeX16”
3,419 Retweets 1,531 likes

On Friday, Hager was waiting in line at an airport in Iraq, where he had traveled together with some relatives to help his sick mother — a U.S. green card holder — get back to Detroit for treatment. But Hager was the only one of his family members allowed through at the border — and his mother, stranded at the Iraqi airport, passed away the next day. h/t nydailynews

“They destroyed us,” Hager told reporters, “I went with my family. I came back by myself. They destroyed our family,” he said referring to the Trump’s order.