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It's been over a week since an Afghan asylum seeker who had aided U.S. military forces during the war in Afghanistan died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Dallas.
The man's family and U.S. veterans' advocates are still waiting for answers.
Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, who was known to his family and friends as Nazeer, served alongside U.S. Army Special Forces in Paktika province – one of the most dangerous in Afghanistan – starting in 2005, according to the nonprofit AfghanEvac. He and his family were evacuated when the pro-U.S. government in Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021.
"It was not easy for everyone to get on that plane," said Nazeer's brother, Naseer Paktiawal, who came to the U.S. seven years earlier. "You would have to have a badge from your job, certificates, recommendation letters [from] where you worked before with the U.S. government."
Nazeer and his family initially were resettled in Dallas and moved to nearby Richardson about a year ago. He was leaving home to take four of his six children to school on Friday, March 13, when two unmarked, black SUVs pulled up, according to his brother.
"Around eight or nine people with no badges or any sign on the vehicles or any stickers that says that police or law enforcement, nothing, just masked men, surrounded him and told him that, ‘You are going with us,'" Naseer said. "And his kids were screaming for help."
The agents took him away. Naseer said his brother called him later that day from ICE custody, claiming he'd offered to show the arresting agents documentation stating he had a legal right to be in the country through 2029. The agents wouldn't listen, Nazeer told his brother.
Late that evening, Naseer got another call from his brother.
"He said that, ‘I don’t know. Something is happening to me. I can’t breathe well. My whole body is in pain, and I’m shaking and sweating,'" Naseer said.
An ICE agent told Naseer his brother would be taken to the hospital. When Naseer asked which hospital, the agent refused to tell him and hung up, he said.
The next afternoon, Naseer was driving with his and his brother's children when an ICE representative called him to tell him his brother had died that morning at Dallas' Parkland Memorial Hospital.
RELATED: Afghan asylum seeker who aided U.S. Army Special Forces dies in ICE custody in Dallas
"I was shocked completely," Naseer said. "I just parked my car on the drive lane in the traffic, and all the kids were looking at me, and I keep asking him like, ‘What do you mean? Maybe you've got the wrong name. My brother is, I talked to him last night. How did this happen?'"
It's still not clear what happened to Nazeer. According to the Dallas County medical examiner's office, his manner of death was still listed as "pending" as of Sunday night.
According to data from ICE, two dozen people have died in the agency's custody since October.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying that Nazeer's humanitarian parole expired last year. It also said Nazeer had been arrested for alleged SNAP fraud and theft last year. No charges were filed.
Homeland Security also released a social media post claiming there was no record of Nazeer's military service. Houston Public Media has viewed a certificate from U.S. Army Special Forces thanking Nazeer for his "sacrifice and service."
Shawn VanDiver is the president and board chairman of AfghanEvac, an organization devoted to helping Afghan allies to resettle in the U.S.
"It tells us everything we need to know that ICE focused on two arrests that did not result in charges or convictions, rather than the fact that a father of six, an otherwise healthy, 41-year-old man, died while in their custody, and rather than offering condolences to the family, they called him a criminal and denigrated his service to our country," VanDiver said.
NPR did a criminal background check on Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal and found nothing. Homeland Security did not respond to several requests for an explanation of why he was arrested.
NPR's Quil Lawrence contributed to this report.
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