Advocates demand answers on death of Afghan man in ICE custody

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on Monday said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s refusal to release an autopsy report for a 41-year-old Afghan man who died in its custody “smacks of a cover-up.” Blumenthal’s comments came during a digital press conference put on by AfghanEvac, a nonprofit that advocates for Afghan nationals who served as U.S. allies during the United States’ war in Afghanistan. The conference centered on what the nonprofit characterized as the lack of information released by federal and local officials regarding the death of Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal in ICE custody in Dallas, Texas, earlier this year.

Who was Paktiawal? Paktiawal was an Afghan refugee who served alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Afghanistan’s Paktika province before being evacuated to the United States in 2021, according to AfghanEvac. He was a husband and the father of six children. Local authorities arrested Paktiawal twice last year for SNAP fraud and theft in separate instances, according to ICE.

What information has the government released about his death? AfghanEvac obtained a copy of what it said was Paktiawal’s death certificate, which was not released until June 25. The certificate stated that Paktiawal sustained an injury that would lead to his death at 11:30 p.m. on March 12. It said the injury occurred while Paktiawal was in ICE’s custody. But Paktiawal was never in ICE’s custody until March 13, according to ICE’s own statement on the matter.

The death certificate also said that “anaphylaxis complicating acute asthma exacerbation” caused Paktiawal’s death. But Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, said in the press conference that he’d spoken to a medical examiner who said the terminology is backwards: anaphylaxis doesn’t complicate asthma; asthma complicates anaphylaxis, the examiner said.

Paktiawal’s death certificate also said that the fatal injury sustained on March 12 was “an adverse drug reaction” and “the ingestion of [an] illicit drug.” The certificate specifically listed methamphetamine as a drug being used, and cited cigarette smoking as a cause of death. But Paktiawal’s brother during the digital press conference said his brother had never used methamphetamine and had stopped smoking cigarettes years before his death.

What information has the government refused to release? The death certificate said that an autopsy report was available to complete the death certificate. But AfghanEvac said local authorities in Texas and ICE have thus far refused to release the full autopsy report because it relates to a pending federal investigation. AfghanEvac and Paktiawal’s family insisted that Paktiawal’s fatal injury was sustained while he was in ICE custody and demanded answers about his cause of death.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift from last month about more than 80 U.S. lawmakers demanding answers about the future of Afghan allies of the United States currently located overseas in Qatar.