FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 14, 2026

The Afghan-American Foundation is heartbroken by the reported death of Nazeer Paktyawal, a community member in Texas, a father of young children, and one of America's wartime allies, who died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

We extend our deepest condolences to his children, his family, and all those who loved him.

We are calling for an immediate, independent, and fully transparent investigation into the circumstances of Nazeer Paktyawal's death — and we are calling on Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to provide answers.

Nazeer Paktyawal was, by initial accounts, doing what fathers do every single morning across Texas and across America. He was dropping his children off at school. It was from that ordinary, loving act that he was taken into federal custody. He never came home.

That image — a father, his children, a school — should give every American pause. Whatever one's views on immigration policy, a man who served alongside U.S. forces for over a decade, who was evacuated to the the U.S. with legal status, was raising his family here, who was living the life of a neighbor and a dad, deserved to be treated with dignity. He deserved basic, adequate care. He deserved to survive.

Acting Director Lyons has stated publicly that ICE conducts its work with transparency and accountability. We are holding him to those words. We demand that ICE immediately and publicly disclose the full timeline of events from Nazeer’s arrest to his death; the medical care he received while in custody; and the cause of his death, as determined by an independent medical examiner. We also demand that the DHS Office of Inspector General open an independent investigation into this tragedy.

This demand is not political. It is a matter of basic human accountability. The United States made commitments to its Afghan allies — commitments that crossed administrations, that were written in the sacrifices of American and Afghan men and women alike. Nazeer Paktyawal honored his side of that commitment. Our government must now honor its obligation to him — starting with the truth about how he died.

ICE is legally required to report deaths in its custody. Those disclosures have too often been delayed, incomplete, or contested. The family of Nazeer Paktyawal, and the broader Afghan-American community, deserve better.

Nazeer Paktyawal was a father. He was a neighbor. He was a human being. His children will grow up without him. The least this country can do is tell them — and the rest of us — the truth.

For media inquiries, contact: info@afghanamericans.org