Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal’s Family Demands Answers 90 Days After He Died in ICE Custody
The Afghan wartime ally and father of six died less than 24 hours after ICE took him into custody. His brother says the family still has no explanation.
More than 90 days after Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal died in ICE custody, his family is still waiting for the government to explain what happened.
Paktiawal was 41, a father of six, and an Afghan wartime ally who fought alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan for more than a decade. He came to the United States after years of service beside American soldiers and after the U.S. promised protection to Afghan allies.
In March, ICE took him into custody in Texas. Less than 24 hours later, his family was told he had died at a hospital in Dallas.
His brother, Naseer Paktiawal, said the family has waited long enough.
“When someone dies, there is supposed to be explanation. There’s supposed to be accountability,” Naseer Paktiawal said during a press briefing organized by AfghanEvac, an organization that advocates for Afghan wartime allies.
That demand now carries the story forward. Paktiawal’s death was reported months ago, but his family still does not know what happened after ICE took him into custody, what medical care he received, or why he died before a full day had passed.
Family members say Paktiawal needed an inhaler. They say his wife tried to give it to arresting officers before he died. Because the official cause of death has not been released, that claim remains part of the family’s unanswered demand, not a settled medical conclusion.
Paktiawal was reportedly taken into custody in front of his children while he was taking them to school. Less than a day later, the family received the call that he had died. His children saw him taken. His family was left with grief, questions, and no clear explanation from the agency that had control over him.
DHS has not publicly released the cause of death and says the investigation is ongoing. That answer does not give Paktiawal’s family a timeline of care or an explanation of what happened between his arrest, the family’s reported attempt to provide an inhaler, and his death before a full day had passed.
ICE publicly describes medical care as a detention priority. Paktiawal’s family says the care he needed did not reach him before he died in government custody.
When the government takes custody of a person, it takes control of that person’s movement, access, medical care, and safety. A family should not have to spend months trying to learn basic facts after a loved one dies under that control.
Advocates have described the lack of answers as a betrayal of Afghan allies who fought alongside U.S. forces and were promised safety. Paktiawal’s service deepens that betrayal, but it is not what creates the government’s duty to answer. He was a father and brother who died after ICE took custody of him, and that custody is enough to require accountability.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the way to uphold American values is to demand the facts. Shawn VanDiver of AfghanEvac said the family is asking for facts, transparency, and the same answers any family would expect after a loved one died in custody.
Paktiawal’s death also sits inside a broader crisis of ICE custody accountability. Scripps News reported that deaths in ICE custody have surged, oversight inspections of detention centers have dropped, and death reports have grown shorter with less information. That pattern matters because weaker oversight and thinner reporting leave families with fewer facts when they are already grieving.
By this point, the public record should be moving toward clarity. Instead, Paktiawal’s family is still facing the same gap: no clear timeline of care, no full explanation, and no public accounting of what happened after ICE took him into custody.
More than 90 days later, the government still owes Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal’s family a clear public accounting of what happened after ICE took custody of him.
Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal’s family should not be left waiting for basic facts while the government points to an ongoing investigation.
Americans Against ICE documents ICE custody deaths because government custody carries a duty to account for what happens inside it. Every unanswered death leaves a family carrying grief, questions, and the burden of forcing the public record open.
Upgrade to support Americans Against ICE and help keep this documentation going.
