New information is available regarding the March death of an Afghan asylum seeker in U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Dallas.
But the Dallas County medical examiner has yet to release the results of the man's autopsy, and ICE has yet to release the results of an investigation into the causes of his death.
Mohammed Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, was seized by ICE agents outside his home on March 13, while he was preparing to take his children to school. According to a detainee death report obtained from ICE by Houston Public Media, Paktiawal was taken to Dallas' Parkland Hospital that evening after experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains.
The next morning, his tongue began to swell, and hospital staff administered epinephrine. Staff began to administer lifesaving procedures a few minutes later, the report shows. But by 9:10 a.m., Paktiawal was dead.
Paktiawal, who was known to his family and friends as Nazeer, previously served alongside U.S. Army Special Forces during the war in Afghanistan. He and his family were brought to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. He left behind a widow and six children — all of whom are now in the care of his brother, Naseer Paktiawal.
Dallas County's medical examiner typically releases the results of autopsy reports within 60-90 days of a patient's death. That 90-day mark expired last Friday.
"I'm asking today, publicly, for the last time," Naseer Paktiawal said. "I need that report to be released from the medical examiner to complete the investigation, published and approved ... to show to the people, to the American people that what exactly happened to my brother."
The ICE detainee death report alleged that Nazeer Paktiawal had been arrested twice in the months leading up to his death, once on accusations of SNAP fraud and once on suspicion of theft. Shawn VanDiver — president of AfghanEvac, an organization that assists Afghan allies resettling in the U.S. — noted that neither charge resulted in a conviction.
"Context also matters," VanDiver said. "The Trump administration’s policy directives revoked Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal’s commercial driver’s license, eliminating his primary livelihood. He was a man supporting three boys and three girls in Richardson, Texas, who had spent more than a decade fighting alongside American Special Forces in Afghanistan. When the government stripped his ability to earn a living, he did what desperate fathers do. The arrests ICE is now using to characterize him were the direct result of policies designed to make survival impossible for people like him."
NPR also conducted a criminal background check on Mohammed Nazeer Paktiawal in March and found no convictions.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin promised U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, during a recent hearing that he would conduct a full investigation into Paktiawal's death. The report of that investigation has yet to be produced and shared with the family, according to Paktiawal’s brother.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee's Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, said he plans to press the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to produce its report on the investigation into Paktiawal's death. He also plans to press Dallas County to release the results of Paktiawal's autopsy. Blumenthal said that if the materials are not produced voluntarily, he's prepared to work with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, the subcommittee's chair, to subpoena the documents.
"Mohammed died on a concrete floor in the custody of a government agency," Blumenthal said. "This agency cannot be allowed to cover up and conceal what happened here. They owe the facts and accountability to this family and to the American public and taxpayers."
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