Death certificate says Afghan asylum-seeker’s death in ICE custody was due to allergic reaction
The newly-released death certificate of a 41-year-old Afghan father of six who died on March 14 in ICE custody at Parkland Hospital brings up more questions than answers, his family and lawmakers say.
The section of the report that shows the cause of death for Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal says he died March 14 due to an adverse drug reaction and ingestion of illicit drugs and later lists methamphetamines, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and tobacco smoking as contributing factors in his death.
The death certificate shows the day of Paktyawal’s illness as March 12, even though he wasn’t in custody until March 13. It also states Paktyawal’s cause of death as an accident due to an allergic reaction causing anaphylaxis and complications caused by asthma.
“Nazeer’s family, and the people who worked alongside him, say that they never knew him to use methamphetamines or any other drugs,” AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver said.
Paktyawal served alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He and his family fled Afghanistan in 2021 through Operation Allies Refuge, which evacuated allies of the U.S. military after the Taliban.
‘His family deserves to know exactly what happened’
In a July 6 news conference, VanDiver, AfghanEvac, Paktyawal’s younger brother Naseer Paktywal, along with Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Julie Johnson, all asked for more answers and accountability from ICE.
AfghanEvac is a nonprofit organization that works with the U.S. government to help resettle Afghan allies.
“My brother served this country, he trusted enough to bring his family here,” Naseer said. “I’m asking the Attorney General, and I’m asking ICE, to stop standing in the way of his family knowing how he died. That is all we ever asked for.”
Naseer said that his family is still struggling with Paktyawal’s death, and said he is taking care of his brother’s children and wife.
“And to be honest with you, what we are going through, nobody can imagine that,” Naseer said. “Every morning when I wake up, I’m looking at their faces, and they’re asking about their dad, especially the little ones, even the one that’s in pre-K. He asked me the same question: ‘When is Baba [Dad] coming home?’”
Naseer said that his brother was a wartime ally who was here legally and had the right documents that allowed him to work and drive while he waited for his asylum to be approved.
“His family deserves to know exactly what happened. Congress deserves answers and the American people deserve transparency whenever someone dies in federal custody,” U.S. Representative Julie Johnson said on the news conference via a pre-recorded video. “Instead we’ve been met with silence.”
Johnson said her office has asked for specific information regarding Paktyawal’s death, including why ICE did not immediately call for an ambulance, what type of medical care was provided and why the records and videos from that day are not being shared.
Naseer said his brother believed in the promises that were made to him by the government when he served with American forces in Afghanistan.
“My family asked for one thing, the truth,” Naseer said. “What happened to my brother in those 24 hours? We asked the county that, we asked for the autopsy report in June, I filed a request myself, and still nothing. Now we have the death certificate, and it gets the date wrong. It says his injury happened before ICE even took him into custody. I don’t understand how the government can ask us to trust a document that cannot even get that right.”
Naseer and the rest of the group who spoke Monday are also asking if the date mix-up is just an error or if it shows ICE is trying to withhold the facts of the incident from the family and public.
“Let me just say very simply, what’s happening here smacks of a cover-up,” Blumenthal said. “Without being unfair to ICE or the Department of Homeland Security, the refusal to release these records creates doubts and suspicions that raise the specter of some kind of cover-up.”
A letter from the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office to Attorney General Ken Paxton asked that the full autopsy report be withheld at the request of ICE Assistant Field Office Director Yousuf Khan, saying the information could compromise a criminal investigation or prosecution.
“I’m going to demand the autopsy report and what kind of criminal investigation there could be to justify the refusal to release it,” Blumenthal said. “The death certificate obviously has errors, or at least one glaring error that raises questions about its credibility, and all the more reason that the public deserves answers in the forum beginning with the autopsy report.”
At the time of his death, Paktyawal was in custody for only 24 hours. His death was not certified by the medical examiner’s office until June 25.
The Star-Telegram reached out to ICE, which said they had no new information to provide and shared a link from a news release from March 15.
In an email, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office told the Star-Telegram the case is not being held by the Dallas County office.
“This is a federal law enforcement matter,” the email read. “Though the PIA request for the autopsy was made to Dallas County (Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences), we communicated with federal law enforcement handling the case which then asserted the law enforcement exception to the records being released due to it being an ongoing investigation.”
The Dallas Medical Examiners Office did not immediately respond to a request asking for clarification on the date on the death certificate.
The death of Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal
Paktyawal was picked up by ICE officers outside his home in Richardson on March 13, 2026.
Federal authorities said Paktyawal had been granted “parole,” or temporary authorization to enter the U.S., when he arrived in 2021, but that expired last August. He was detained during a targeted enforcement action and the agency said he had a “known criminal history” of an arrest for “SNAP fraud” on Sept. 16 and theft on Nov. 1.
“We don’t know the circumstances of that yet,” VanDiver told the Star-Telegram at the time of Paktyawal’s death. “But the punishment for fraud in Texas or anywhere else in this country is not death.”
According to DHS, Paktyawal “complained of shortness of breath and chest pains” while in ICE custody at the Dallas Field Office and was sent to Parkland Hospital for breathing treatment. The next morning, March 14, doctors noted that his tongue had become swollen, DHS said. “After multiple lifesaving efforts were attempted, he was declared deceased at 9:10 a.m.,” a DHS statement read.
Naseer was asked at the July 6 press conference about the outcome his family is looking for.
“The truth, the justice, what happened to my brother,” Naseer said. “And that’s the question they are asking his family, my sister-in-law is asking me, ‘Did you hear anything? Did you find out what happened to him?’ So we just want the truth, and it’s not too much to ask for.”