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ICE detained Afghan war ally Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, who died in custody the next day after agents denied his inhaler

Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, a 41-year-old Afghan national who served alongside U.S. Army Special Forces, was detained by ICE agents outside his Richardson, Texas home on March 13, 2026, and died the next day at a Dallas hospital after suffering anaphylaxis and an asthma exacerbation in ICE custody. A death certificate reported July 6, 2026 lists the death as accidental, citing an unidentified adverse drug reaction; his family disputes the finding.

Part of: 2025–2026 ICE Detainee Death Surge

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Dallas, Texas

Abuses documented

Actors

On March 14, 2026, Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, a 41-year-old Afghan national who served alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Paktika province, died at a Dallas hospital roughly a day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him outside his Richardson, Texas home while he was dropping his children at school. Paktiawal suffered anaphylaxis and an asthma exacerbation while held in ICE custody at the Dallas Field Office; his wife has said agents refused her attempt to give him his inhaler after his arrest. A death certificate obtained by the Associated Press, reported July 6, 2026, lists the death as accidental, attributing it to an unidentified adverse drug reaction; his family disputes an accompanying toxicology finding and has hired an independent pathologist who found nothing remarkable in his underlying health for a man his age.

Paktiawal had resettled in Texas in 2021 after the fall of Kabul; the Department of Homeland Security has disputed his military-service record. His death was among more than a dozen ICE-custody deaths reported so far in 2026.

Updates

2026-07-06 — Dallas County declined to release full autopsy report [5]

Dallas County officials declined multiple public-records requests for Paktiawal's full autopsy report, and the county's district attorney asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block its release, citing an ongoing federal criminal investigation.

Why we recorded this

Government custody carries an absolute duty to provide for detainees' basic medical needs, including care for a known condition. Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal's wife says ICE agents refused to let him use his inhaler after his arrest; he suffered anaphylaxis and an asthma exacerbation and died the next day, and Dallas County has since declined to release his full autopsy, citing an active federal criminal investigation. This archive records the death because a witnessed denial of a specific, known medical need, followed by death within a day and an active criminal investigation, is more than an unexplained death.

Sources

  1. Former Afghan ally who died in ICE custody suffered an allergic reaction, death certificate says — Scripps News (AP) primary accessed July 6, 2026
  2. Afghan father, former U.S. military ally, dies in ICE custody in Texas — CBS News Texas secondary accessed July 6, 2026
  3. Criminal illegal alien from Afghanistan with previous arrests for fraud and theft passes away at Texas hospital — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement primary accessed July 6, 2026
  4. Afghan man dies in ICE custody in Dallas — The Texas Tribune investigative accessed July 6, 2026
  5. Dallas County blocks release of autopsy report of Afghan asylum seeker who died in ICE custody in March — Houston Public Media investigative accessed July 6, 2026

See also