An Afghan man who had helped the American military in Afghanistan and was currently living in Texas died on Saturday, a day after being taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a veterans group that advocates for Afghans who helped the United States.
His death brings the number of in-custody ICE deaths in Texas to at least seven since December.
At about 7 a.m. on Friday, eight masked agents detained Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal when the 41-year-old was taking his kids to school, said Shawn VanDiver, president of the organization AfghanEvac. Paktyawal and his family lived in Richardson, outside of Dallas, while his asylum claim with the government remained pending.
Paktyawal told his relatives Friday evening that he did not feel well. He was admitted to a hospital and died Saturday, VanDiver said. A preliminary report from the Dallas County Medical Examiner did not list a cause or manner of death.
VanDiver, a U.S. Navy veteran who started AfghanEvac to help Afghans left behind after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, called for an immediate and transparent investigation into Paktyawal’s death, which marked the latest at the hands of ICE. The federal agency has faced scrutiny as it undertakes President Donald Trump’s mass deportations.
Spokespersons for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We don’t know what happened,” VanDiver told The Texas Tribune on Sunday. “But it would be pretty weird for a healthy 41-year-old man to die less than 24 hours after being taken into government custody.”
Thousands of Afghans resettled in Texas after the U.S. military in 2021 ended its two-decade presence in Afghanistan, and the Taliban took over.
Paktyawal, a father of six, began working with Army Special Forces in 2005 in a province called Paktika in southeast Afghanistan. He and his family were evacuated by the United States in August 2021 after the fall of the country.
There have been at least a dozen deaths across the country in ICE custody this year. Last year, the agency recorded more than 30 deaths — a two-decade high — as it played an expanded role in Trump’s immigration crackdown. Nearly a quarter of those deaths occurred in Texas.
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