An Afghan asylum seeker who spent years fighting alongside American forces in Afghanistan died on Saturday at a Dallas hospital, less than 24 hours after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him outside his home in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas, triggering calls for a congressional investigation into the circumstances of his death.
Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, died on March 14 after being detained the previous day. The cause of death has not been publicly confirmed. He is at least the 12th person to die in ICE custody in 2026, according to a Newsweek analysis of detainee death notifications.
Paktyawal served for more than a decade as an Afghan special forces soldier beginning in 2005, working alongside units of the United States Army Special Forces in Paktika province, in eastern Afghanistan. He and his family were evacuated from Afghanistan by the United States on August 30, 2021, during the withdrawal that ended two decades of war.
ICE said agents arrested Paktyawal on March 13 in a targeted enforcement operation and that he complained of shortness of breath and chest pains during his medical intake exam at the Dallas ICE field office. He was transported to Parkland Hospital, where he received a breathing treatment and doctors recommended he remain overnight for observation. Early the following morning, medical staff noticed his tongue had become swollen and administered an epinephrine drip. After multiple resuscitation attempts, he was declared dead at 9:10 a.m.
His family described him as a loving husband and father of six children, with the youngest aged 18 months, who worked at a halal market and bakery near his home. “We cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man,” they said.
AfghanEvac, the veteran-led advocacy group that helped resettle Paktyawal’s family, called for an immediate and transparent investigation, including oversight by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General and Congress. AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver said: “Mr. Paktyawal survived our war in Afghanistan and trusted the United States enough to rebuild his life here. His family deserves answers. The American public deserves answers. The U.S. service members who fought alongside Afghan partners deserve answers.”
ICE, in its statement, said Paktyawal’s humanitarian parole had expired in August 2025 and cited two local arrests in 2025, one in September for alleged fraud related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food benefits to low-income families, and another in November for theft. AfghanEvac said neither arrest resulted in criminal charges and that Paktyawal had not been convicted of any crimes.
ICE’s statement did not reference Paktyawal’s military service. The agency’s DHS spokesperson also characterised the Biden-era Afghan evacuation programme as having admitted unvetted nationals, a claim that experts and officials have disputed, noting that evacuated Afghans underwent multiple screenings by intelligence and counterterrorism professionals both in Afghanistan and in transit countries.
The number of deaths in ICE custody has risen sharply in recent years, recording seven in 2023, eleven in 2024, and thirty-two in 2025. The total number of people held in ICE detention stood at approximately 68,000 as of early February 2026, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner is expected to release a full report on the cause and manner of Paktyawal’s death in the coming days.
