Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal died on March 14, 2026, while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Richardson, Texas. His death followed a brief detention after ICE agents arrested him for violating the terms of his expired humanitarian parole.
Paktiawal was an Afghan national who fought against the Taliban as part of a local paramilitary group that operated alongside U.S. Special Forces in Paktika Province beginning in 2005. He never served in the United States military and was never granted a Special Immigrant Visa, the program that provides permanent residency to Afghan allies of the U.S. government.
He entered the United States on August 21, 2021, through Washington Dulles International Airport after receiving humanitarian parole, a temporary permission to stay for urgent humanitarian reasons. The parole expired on August 20, 2025, and did not confer permanent residency or a pathway to citizenship.
The Special Immigrant Visa program requires at least twelve months of documented service for the U.S. government or the International Security Assistance Force between October 2001 and December 2024, verified through a State Department review. Paktiawal did not obtain such a visa and instead relied on humanitarian parole, a status shared by tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated during the 2021 withdrawal.
After arriving, he worked as a truck driver and later took employment at a local market and bakery. A federal rule enacted in September 2021 revoked commercial driver’s licenses for humanitarian parolees, which may have affected his ability to work in that capacity.
In September 2025, a Dallas County grand jury indicted Paktiawal on a third‑degree felony charge of SNAP fraud involving benefits of $200 or more. He posted a $3,000 bond and was not convicted. He was also arrested for misdemeanor theft in November 2025, again without a recorded conviction.
On the morning of March 13, 2026, ICE agents arrested him at his home, citing his expired parole and the pending fraud and theft cases as grounds for detention. He was transferred to the ICE Dallas Field Office that evening.
While in custody, Paktiawal reported chest pain and shortness of breath. His family says he suffered from asthma and attempted to give him an inhaler, which ICE staff declined in accordance with agency medical protocols that require medication to be administered by facility personnel.
ICE transported him to Parkland Memorial Hospital for observation. During breakfast the next morning, staff noted severe tongue swelling and administered epinephrine for an allergic reaction, but resuscitation efforts failed and he was pronounced dead at 9:10 a.m.
The death certificate listed anaphylaxis associated with asthma as the primary cause, with methamphetamine toxicity, cardiovascular disease, and smoking noted as contributing factors. The family and an independent pathologist have disputed these findings, though the pathologist could not perform independent toxicology testing because the body had already been embalmed.
Since the 2021 withdrawal, roughly 190,000 to 200,000 Afghans have been resettled in the United States, most under humanitarian parole rather than the SIV program. Under immigration law, an arrest or indictment—without a conviction—can be sufficient grounds for ICE to terminate parole and initiate removal proceedings.
