An Afghan man who assisted U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan passed away on Saturday, just a day after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This information was confirmed by a veterans organization advocating for Afghans who aided the United States.
This incident marks at least the seventh death of an individual in ICE custody in Texas since December.
On Friday morning around 7 a.m., eight masked agents apprehended Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, a 41-year-old resident of Richardson, Texas, while he was dropping his children off at school. His asylum claim was still pending at the time of his detention, according to Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac.
Later that evening, Paktyawal informed his family that he was feeling unwell. He was subsequently admitted to a hospital, where he died the following day. A preliminary report from the Dallas County Medical Examiner has yet to provide a cause or manner of death.
VanDiver, a U.S. Navy veteran who founded AfghanEvac to assist Afghans left behind after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, has called for an immediate and thorough investigation into Paktyawal’s death, which adds to the growing concerns surrounding ICE. The agency has faced increasing scrutiny as it implements mass deportation policies initiated during the Trump administration.
Both ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have not yet responded to requests for comments regarding this incident.
“We don’t know what happened,” VanDiver stated. “But it would be quite unusual for a healthy 41-year-old man to die less than 24 hours after being taken into government custody.”
Since the conclusion of the U.S. military’s two-decade presence in Afghanistan in 2021 and the subsequent takeover by the Taliban, thousands of Afghans have settled in Texas.
Paktyawal, a father of six, began collaborating with Army Special Forces in 2005 in Paktika Province, located in southeastern Afghanistan. He and his family were evacuated by the U.S. in August 2021 following the Taliban’s ascent to power.
This year alone, there have been at least a dozen deaths in ICE custody nationwide. Last year, the agency reported more than 30 deaths—the highest in two decades—during an expanded role in enforcing immigration policies under the Trump administration, with nearly a quarter of those fatalities occurring in Texas.
