Outrage as Afghan asylum seeker who fought alongside US dies in ICE custody
What happened
Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, was detained by ICE on March 13 while dropping his children at school in Richardson, Texas. He complained of shortness of breath and chest pains during processing and was taken to Parkland Hospital. Medical staff observed tongue swelling the next morning, and he was declared deceased at 9:10 a.m. on March 14.
Paktyawal had worked as an Afghan special forces soldier beginning in 2005, serving alongside US Army special forces in Paktika province. He was among approximately 70,000 Afghans evacuated to the US following the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan. He worked at a halal market and bakery and had six children.
ICE stated Paktyawal had been arrested by local authorities for fraud and theft involving SNAP benefits. Advocacy group AfghanEvac stated he was never charged or convicted following those arrests. ICE detention numbers surged from 40,000 to 73,000 during Trump's first year in office as of January 2026. The Trump administration paused visa issuance to Afghan nationals after an Afghan national shot two National Guard members in November 2025, killing one. The administration ended temporary protected status for Afghans, affecting an estimated 11,700 individuals.
Who's perspective
This article is written from an advocacy-aligned perspective, centering the voices of AfghanEvac and the Afghan-American Foundation while treating ICE's account as a counterpoint to be challenged. That framing shapes which details receive emphasis — Paktyawal's military service and family life are foregrounded, while ICE's version of events is presented primarily as a rebuttal rather than an independent account.
Taken for granted
The article takes for granted that Paktyawal's prior arrests are irrelevant to the story because he was never charged or convicted. While that legal point is factually noted, the article does not explore whether ICE had independent legal grounds for the detention itself — treating the legitimacy of the detention as settled when it is a separate question from the criminal label.
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