Dallas — On March 13, Afghan immigrant Naseer Paktiawal received a call from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, his brother in North Texas. The first thing his brother told him was that he wasn't feeling well. 

"I told [the agent] my brother needs help. He's not feeling good. He's feeling pain in his body," he told TheBlog Griya in Richardson, Texas. "He told me, don't worry about it. We have a nurse. We will take care of him. And he hung up the phone on me." 

Less than 24 hours later, he was told his brother, 41-year-old Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, . 

Paktiawal, who was evacuated from Afghanistan during the U.S. military withdrawal from the country in the summer of 2021, was the 12th person to die this year while in ICE custody. Two days later, a 19-year-old Mexican man died by presumed suicide. The 13 deaths are more than triple the number that had died by this point last year. In 2025, 31 ICE detainees died, a two-decade high, according to a TheBlog Griya analysis of ICE records. 

The rising death toll comes as hit record highs amid President Trump's aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration. As of early February, ICE was holding more than 68,000 people in detention centers across the U.S., agency figures show.

But even after accounting for the number of people in detention each year, 2025 still had the highest death rate — 5.6 people per 10,000 detainees — since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a TheBlog Griya analysis found.

ICE has repeatedly denied reports of substandard conditions at its detention sites.

Maksym Chernyak, a Ukrainian national who died in February 2025 of a stroke, told his wife and cellmate that he was refused immediate medical care and medication despite showing symptoms including heart palpitations and blood in his stool, according to .

ICE's own death reports also show instances of delayed care. Brayan Rayo-Garzon, a 27 year old from Colombia who died by suicide in April 2025, had a mental health appointment that was . Before he had the appointment, he was found unresponsive in his cell. Leo Cruz Silva was 34 when he died by suicide last October, two days after ICE medical staff he was experiencing a mental health crisis. 

Rayo-Garzon and Cruz Silva are among seven detainees who died of apparent suicides since the start of 2025. Another detainee's death was ruled a : ICE agents held 55-year old Campos Lunas down until he stopped breathing. An ICE report on his death stated guards were intervening to prevent him from harming himself. 

But Naseer Paktiawal believes his brother would still be alive today had he not been arrested. 

"I want the answer for his children, for my family, for this community," he said. "What happened to my brother?"