The family of an Afghan man who died in US immigration custody has accused the Donald Trump administration of killing “a hero for American people”.
Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal was pronounced dead just 24 hours after he was dragged away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday morning.
Paktyawal, 41, had worked for the American military during its occupation of Afghanistan before moving to the US in 2021 when the Taliban retook the country from Nato forces.
Standing outside a funeral home in Dallas, Texas, Paktyawal’s brother, Naseer Paktyawal, accused the Trump administration of killing his best friend since birth”.
Paktyawal had been living in Richardson city and working as a baker pending his asylum case. He was arrested on Friday morning just as he was leaving his house to take his children to school.
ICE said Paktyawal was arrested for committing fraud against the food aid programme SNAP by allegedly misusing food stamps.
A spokesperson for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said there were two cases of SNAP fraud of $200 or more – a third-degree felony – registered against Paktyawal as well as one case of theft. The cases hadn’t been heard in court at the time of his death.
The father of six children, the youngest of them 18 months old, was confirmed dead at the Parkland Hospital in Dallas at 9am on Saturday due to circumstances unknown to the family.
The Paktyawal family are now scrambling to find out what precisely led to his death in the 24 hours of custody.
“He was not my brother. He was my best friend. He was the person I could share everything with. He was a person that I was always counting on. He was the one that I would go to if there was something that needed to be done,” his brother told The Independent, breaking down inconsolably.
“Now, I’m nothing, just nothing without him. He was everything for me. He was everything for his family, for my mom. For my entire family,” he continued. “They took everything from me, from his family. From those six kids and his wife.”
In a statement to The Independent, the Department of Homeland Security described Paktyawal as a “criminal illegal alien” who “entered the US under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Refuge in August 2021”.
“He provided no record of his military service. His criminal history in our country includes an arrest for fraudulent use of food stamps and theft,” they claimed. “On August 20, 2025, Paktyawal’s parole expired.”
Paktyawal, an Afghan special forces soldier, worked for nearly a decade with the 3rd Special Forces Group of the US army in eastern Paktika province, one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan, his family said.
His family said that he entered the US in 2021 through the official evacuation process and “not by crossing the land border” and was resettled through Catholic charities.
Paktyawal, who had lived in Kabul earlier, applied for asylum and completed the asylum interview.
He received work authorisation and a social security number and one of his children was born a US citizen.
“My brother was not an illegal criminal alien, whatever it is they are saying,” Naseer Paktyawal said. “We were brothers in arms with Americans, served shoulder by shoulder alongside the US military and Nato forces, especially the Americans.”
“He was here legally and he was a hero, a war veteran,” he continued. “He was a hero for his country, his people back home. He was a hero for the American people, for the American society, and for this country. He served the US and very proudly so, and it has given him this death.”
After his arrest, Paktyawal complained of shortness of breath and chest pain during a medical exam at an ICE field office in Dallas, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis said. He was allowed to make a call to his family and he rang his brother in panic, who said he sounded “extremely scared and panicked”.
“They surrounded me and put me in the car and did not even allow me to say anything,” his brother said Paktyawal told him, adding that he did not know where exactly he was taken to.
“My brother said he was having a hard time breathing and complained of swelling and pain in his body. I knew he was scared and he was saying he didn’t know why they had brought him there or where they were gonna take him.”
Homeland Security said Paktyawal was taken to a Parkland hospital on Saturday and his tongue was reported swollen. He died despite being given CPR which his family said confirmed ill-treatment. They alleged he was denied his SOS inhaler.
Paktyawal’s is at least the 24th death in ICE custody this fiscal year, which began in October and is on track to be the deadliest in more than two decades.
Afghan Evac, a group supporting Afghan allies of Nato forces and refugees, described Paktyawal’s death as “highly unusual”.
“Paktyawal survived the war in Afghanistan and trusted the US enough to rebuild his life here,” the group said.
“The government should be explaining how a 41-year-old father of six died less than 24 hours after entering ICE custody,” Shawn VanDiver, the group’s president, said.
“They called a man who helped them in a war a criminal without a conviction while claiming there is ‘no record’ of service without checking interagency systems looks less like fact-finding and more like damage control.”
The family is preparing to go to Afghanistan to bury Paktyawal in his homeland.
“We’re gonna take my brother to the mosque for funeral prayers and then, maybe not tomorrow, maybe the next day, I will take him back to my country Afghanistan and bury him down there,” his brother said.
“No one is safe here, not even a US citizen.”
