FORT WORTH, Texas — The funeral prayer for the 41-year-old Afghan father of six who died Saturday in ICE custody was held Tuesday while more questions arise about why he was picked up and what caused his death less than a day later.

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal and his family fled Afghanistan in 2021 through Operation Allies Refuge, which evacuated allies of the U.S. military after the Taliban.

“He had his asylum pending, so he was not ‘illegal’ like the Department of Homeland Security likes to say,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEVAC. “He was here perfectly legally.”

Paktyawal was picked up by Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers outside his home in Richardson on Friday. 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, 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 said.

The results of an autopsy by the Dallas medical examiner are pending.

VanDiver said that according to the man’s family, his wife tried to give ICE officers his inhaler to take with him, but they wouldn’t. Later that day, the man’s brother and wife tried to take the inhaler to the ICE facility but were told, “We don’t need it, we’ve got all the facilities we need here,” VanDiver said.

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 Friday during a targeted enforcement action and he had a “known criminal history” of an arrest for “SNAP fraud” on Sept. 16 and theft on Nov. 1.

A spokesperson for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office told the Star-Telegram that there was an active, indicted case against Paktyawal for a third-degree felony on SNAP benefits fraud of $200 or more. Records also show a misdemeanor theft charge of $100 to $750 from Garland that hadn’t yet been filed with the DA’s office.

VanDiver told the Star-Telegram on Tuesday that the indictment related to food stamps came one month after his immigration parole ended.

“We don’t know the circumstances of that yet,” VanDiver said. “But the punishment for fraud in Texas or anywhere else in this country is not death.”

“This is an absolute tragedy, the family deserves answers, and if DHS spent as much time trying to get answers, rather than trying to denigrate the service of this man who stood behind our American service members — that family might have some answers,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Dallas said people like Paktyawal, whose name has also been spelled Paktiawal, place their trust in the government to protect them after they helped protect Americans overseas.

“If someone like Mohammed Nazeer Paktiawal, who risked his life to assist the United States, can die in custody under these circumstances, it sends a troubling signal far beyond our borders,” Veasey said in a statement. “Stories like his will reach places like Afghanistan and Iran, where people weigh the risks of cooperating with the United States and ask a simple question: If we stand with America, will America stand with us? Our credibility — and our ability to find people willing to risk everything to help protect our nation — depends on how we answer that question.”

Both Veasey and U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, both Democrats, had visited the Dallas ICE facility prior to Paktyawal’s death.

“Last week, I visited that same ICE Processing Center in Dallas,” Veasey said. “During my visit, officials assured me that individuals held at the facility are generally not detained for longer than eight hours except in rare circumstances. However, that assurance stands in stark contrast to reports I have received from members of the community describing people being held far longer.”

VanDiver said Paktyawal is not the only Afghan ally of American service members to be picked up by ICE.

“We were able to get them to stop,” VanDiver said. “We think that this one was related to his arrest for fraud, but like he wasn’t convicted. So it does seem like they’re getting cute with due process, which we know they have been cute with due process because they’ve lost 4,400 times on habeas petitions,” referring to the number of rulings by judges that immigrants had been detained unlawfully.

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