AUSTIN — An Afghan immigrant who lived in the Dallas area died over the weekend less than 24 hours after being taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a veteran advocacy group #AfghanEvac said Sunday afternoon.
The advocacy group said Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal died Saturday morning at Parkland Memorial Hospital after he was admitted to the hospital at about 11:45 Friday night. Paktyawal had a pending asylum case, the group said.
Shawn VanDiver, #AfghanEvac’s president, said Paktyawal had spoken to his brother on Friday night. The cause of the death is unknown, VanDiver said, but he called for an investigation. He was arrested by ICE on Friday morning while preparing to drive his children to school, VanDiver said.
“It is highly unusual for an otherwise healthy 41-year-old man to die less than a day after being taken into government custody, and the circumstances surrounding his detention and medical care raise urgent questions,” VanDiver said.
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In the 2025 calendar year, ICE reported 33 deaths of individuals in custody, the highest in over two decades.
Two of those deaths took place at the Dallas ICE field office in a shooting where the shooter killed two detainees and injured a third before killing himself. Federal authorities said the shooter acted alone and was targeting ICE agents and did not intend to harm detainees.
Paktyawal is the 12th person to die in 2026, according to agency information compiled by Reuters.
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.
Wendi Hawthorne, a spokeswoman for Parkland Health, said that federal law prohibits the hospital from discussing patient information and referred questions to DHS.
Paktyawal was a former Afghan special forces soldier who worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces beginning in 2005, VanDiver said. He and his family were evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021 and settled in Richardson, Texas, with his wife and six children and he worked at a halal market.