He Survived America's Longest War. He Didn't Survive 24 Hours in ICE Custody.

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal fought alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan for years. He fled the Taliban, sought asylum in America, and was raising six children in a Dallas suburb. On March 16, 2026, he was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital — less than a day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him outside his apartment.

His death, the 12th in ICE custody this year, has become a flashpoint in the escalating national debate over immigration enforcement, the treatment of wartime allies, and a detention system buckling under the strain of record-high populations.

The Arrest

At approximately 7 a.m. on Friday, March 14, eight masked agents surrounded Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal as he stepped outside his apartment in Richardson, Texas, to take his children to school [1][2]. His children watched as agents handcuffed their father and drove him away.

Paktyawal, 41, had been living in Richardson with his wife and six children since arriving in the United States in August 2021, part of the mass evacuation following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan [3]. He worked at a halal market and bakery near his home. His asylum case remained pending at the time of his arrest [4].

ICE later characterized Paktyawal as a "criminal illegal alien," citing two prior arrests — one for SNAP benefits fraud in September 2025 and another for theft in November 2025 [2]. Advocacy groups were quick to note that neither arrest resulted in charges or a conviction [2][5].

Less Than 24 Hours

After being transported to the ICE field office in Dallas, Paktyawal began complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains late Friday [1][6]. He was rushed to Parkland Hospital, where medical staff observed severe tongue swelling the following morning. Despite resuscitation efforts, he was pronounced dead at 9:10 a.m. on Saturday, March 16 [2][7].

The Dallas County Medical Examiner's initial report listed no cause or manner of death [1]. An investigation is pending.

His family said Paktyawal had no known health conditions [3]. AfghanEvac, the San Diego-based advocacy organization that had been supporting his case, said it was "not normal" for an otherwise healthy 41-year-old to die within 24 hours of being taken into federal custody [5].

"Mr. Paktyawal survived our war in Afghanistan and trusted the United States enough to rebuild his life here," said Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac and a U.S. Navy veteran. "His family deserves answers. The American public deserves answers. The U.S. service members who fought alongside Afghan partners deserve answers" [5].

A Wartime Ally

Paktyawal's story is inseparable from America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. Beginning around 2005, he served alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Paktika province, one of the most dangerous regions of the country [1][2][7]. Tens of thousands of Afghans worked with American forces as interpreters, logistics contractors, intelligence sources, and combat partners during the war. Many were promised pathways to safety in exchange for the extraordinary risks they took.

When the Afghan government collapsed in August 2021 during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, more than 190,000 Afghans fled to the United States [1]. Many, like Paktyawal, entered under humanitarian parole or evacuation programs and subsequently applied for asylum.

But the promise of safety has frayed. The Trump administration has terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghan nationals, suspended the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program effective January 1, 2026, and included Afghanistan on an expanded travel ban [8][9]. Nearly 11,000 Afghans in the U.S. under TPS are now at risk of deportation [9]. Meanwhile, the SIV backlog has swelled to over 178,000 individuals who have already been approved at the Chief of Mission stage but cannot proceed to visa issuance [10].

A federal court ruled in February 2026 that the indefinite pause on SIV adjudications violates federal law, but the broader travel suspension remains in place [10].

A System Under Strain

Paktyawal's death did not occur in isolation. It is the latest in an accelerating pattern of fatalities within a detention system that has expanded at an unprecedented pace.

Source: CBS News / American Immigration Council / ICE Statistics

Data as of Mar 16, 2026CSV

The ICE detained population has surged from roughly 40,000 when President Trump took office in January 2025 to approximately 73,000 as of early 2026 — an 84% increase and the highest level ever recorded by the agency [11][12]. That growth has been driven overwhelmingly by immigrants with no criminal convictions; one analysis found that 92% of detention growth in fiscal year 2026 has come from people with no criminal record [12].

Source: NPR / ICE Detainee Death Reporting / American Immigration Council

Data as of Mar 16, 2026CSV

The human cost of that expansion has been severe. At least 31 people died in ICE custody in calendar year 2025, the highest annual toll in two decades and nearly triple the 11 deaths recorded in 2024 [13][14]. December 2025 was the deadliest single month on record. In the first 75 days of 2026, at least 12 people have died — already exceeding the full-year total from 2024 [14][15]. Paktyawal's death brings the count of ICE custody deaths in Texas alone to at least seven since December [4].

The causes are systemic. A landmark report by the ACLU, American Oversight, and Physicians for Human Rights found that 95% of deaths in ICE detention between 2017 and 2021 could likely have been prevented with adequate medical care [16]. Medical staff were found to have falsified or made insufficient documentation in 61% of detainee death cases examined [16]. Disease outbreaks — including measles at facilities in Arizona and Texas in January 2026 — have compounded the crisis [15].

Oversight has simultaneously eroded. The Office of Detention Oversight was shuttered during a 43-day government shutdown, during which five detainees died [15]. ICE facility inspections plummeted in 2025 even as the detained population soared [17]. The DHS civil rights office has experienced hundreds of staff cuts [15].

"Battle Buddies" and Broken Promises

The detention and deportation of Afghan allies has provoked a sharp backlash from the American veteran community. AfghanEvac and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America launched a "Battle Buddies" program encouraging veterans to physically escort Afghan allies to their immigration hearings — more than 225 veterans from 43 states signed up [9].

The moral dimension of the issue is difficult to overstate. These are individuals who were recruited by the U.S. government to support military operations with an explicit or implicit promise of protection. Many face death threats from the Taliban if returned to Afghanistan.

Representative Jason Crow, a Democrat and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, has called on the Trump administration to "stop the unfair targeting of Afghan nationals" [8]. A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Representative Doris Matsui has echoed those demands [8].

ICE has defended its enforcement actions, noting that Paktyawal was subject to a final order of removal and that the agency "takes very seriously the health, safety, and welfare of those in our care" [1]. The agency said it would conduct a comprehensive review of the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Broader Reckoning

Paktyawal's case crystallizes multiple colliding crises: a mass deportation campaign that has stretched detention infrastructure beyond its capacity; the abandonment of tens of thousands of wartime allies; and a medical care system within ICE facilities that independent reviewers have repeatedly found to be dangerously inadequate.

The Afghan-American Foundation said in a statement that Paktyawal "deserved to survive" and called for "dignity and adequate care" for all detainees [2]. His family has requested an independent autopsy.

For the veterans who served alongside men like Paktyawal, his death carries a particular sting. VanDiver framed it in terms the military community would understand: "When we go to war, we make promises to the people who fight alongside us. Breaking those promises doesn't just betray them — it makes it harder to find allies in the next conflict" [5].

Paktyawal leaves behind a wife and six children in Richardson, Texas, and a pending asylum case that will never be resolved.