Afghan Man Who Served As US Military Ally Dies In ICE Custody 1 Day After Arrest
An Afghan father of six, who served as a U.S. military ally, died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just one day after he was arrested in North Texas. When the news first broke, the federal government defaulted to its usual PR strategy of smearing the victim, claiming he had a “criminal history,” citing charges for non-violent crimes he was never convicted of. DHS also said he never reported any medical issues.
Suffice it to say, his family isn’t buying it.
The Texas Tribune reported that 41-year-old Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, who lived in Richardson, Texas, right outside of Dallas, was taking his kids to school at about 7 a.m. on Friday, when eight masked agents detained him, according to U.S. Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, who started the organization AfghanEvac to help Afghans left behind after the U.S, withdrew from Afghanistan. Paktiawal’s brother, Naseer Paktiawal, told CBS News that the arrest happened right in front of his brother’s children, who were terrified.
“He was arrested in front of these kids while taking them to school at 7 in the morning. Some people surrounded him, put him in the car, and drove him away while they were screaming, asking for help,” Naseer said, adding that less than 24 hours later, he received the call that his brother had died.
From the Tribune:
In its press release, ICE said agents detained him on March 13 in a targeted enforcement action. It said he had two previous arrests by unspecified local authorities last year: first for SNAP fraud on Sept. 16 and again for theft on Nov. 1. ICE and DHS did not say whether he was convicted of those charges, and didn’t immediately respond to questions from the Tribune.
Paktiawal did not report any prior medical issues when the agency arrested him, the agency said. But later that evening, he complained of shortness of breath and chest pains when he was in a processing hold room at ICE Dallas Field Office, prompting officials to transport him to Parkland Hospital, according to the agency. He remained at the hospital for observation, based on the ER doctor’s recommendation.
The following day, ICE said hospital staff noted that his tongue had become swollen while eating breakfast, prompting a medical response. He was declared deceased at 9:10 a.m.
“We don’t know what happened,” VanDiver told the 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.”
As for the fraud and theft charges, “records show Paktiawal was never convicted of those charges,” Fox 4 reported.
So, ICE made sure to include information about Paktiawal’s so-called “criminal history” in its statement, but conveniently omitted the fact that that history includes two charges but no convictions. The agency also claimed that he never reported any history of medical issues, and, according to CBS, that it had no record of his military service.
Not that it should matter, because ICE detainees should be cared for whether or not they once served as U.S. allies or not, but, according to the Tribune, Paktiawal began working with Army Special Forces in 2005 in a province called Paktika in southeast Afghanistan. He and his family were evacuated by the U.S. in August 2021. According to ICE, he was “paroled into the U.S. by an immigration officer” — meaning he was given temporary permission to enter and remain in the U.S. under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Refuge — after arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport, and that parole expired in August 2025. The Tribune noted that Paktiawal had a pending asylum claim, which his brother confirmed to CBS.
So, just to recap: ICE arrested a father in front of his children, those children never saw their father again because he died a day later, ICE justified the arrest by calling him a criminal based on non-violent offenses he was never convicted of, and, to top it all off, he was a U.S. ally with a pending immigration case that may very well have resulted in him being allowed to stay in the U.S., for all ICE knew.
But please, tell us more about how President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda is about ridding the U.S. of the “worst of the worst.”
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