Afghan Man Dies After ICE Custody

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, a 41-year-old Afghan man who served alongside U.S. special forces and fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, died on Saturday at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. He was detained by ICE near his Dallas apartment less than a day before his death.

Paktyawal's family and an advocacy group stated he had no known health conditions and had been seeking asylum since arriving in the U.S. in August 2021. According to multiple reports, Paktyawal was arrested during a 'targeted enforcement operation' on Friday for alleged fraud against SNAP and theft. During his medical intake exam at a Dallas ICE field office, he complained of shortness of breath and chest pains.

ICE contacted paramedics who transported him to the hospital. His condition deteriorated the following morning, and he died shortly after 9 a.m. local time after receiving CPR and other resuscitative efforts from physicians. An initial report from the Dallas County Medical Examiner listed no cause or manner of death.

Paktyawal's death marks the 12th of a detainee in ICE custody this year, according to CNN. The incident has prompted widespread grief in the close-knit Afghan diaspora community in Texas, where many of the more than 190,000 Afghans who fled to the U.S. after the country's government collapsed in August 2021 settled.

The Biden administration evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans after the Taliban takeover and the U.S. withdrawal, ending two decades of war. The effort aimed to protect Afghans whose work alongside U.S. servicemembers made them vulnerable to reprisals from the new Taliban government.