Overview:
Emmanuel Damas died following a tooth an infection that his household says was left untreated whereas he was being held at an ICE facility. His loss of life is available in a 12 months of record-high detainee fatalities, echoing the 2025 medical-related deaths of Jean-Wilson Brutus in New Jersey and Marie Ange Blaise in Florida.
PHOENIX (AP) — The household of a Haitian man who fell unwell inside an Arizona immigration detention heart says he died Monday after his tooth an infection went untreated by employees on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Emmanuel Damas, 56, is the third Haitian reported useless in federal custody since April 2025, amid skyrocketing detentions to satisfy the Trump administration’s mass deportation targets.
“As a rustic — I’m an American now — I believe we are able to do higher than that,” Damas’s brother Presly Nelson mentioned Wednesday.
Damas had been in custody since September and was being held even after his asylum software was denied. Damas first instructed medical staff on the Florence Correctional Center about his toothache in mid-February. Regardless of his ache, his brother says he was by no means despatched to see a dentist.
Florence Correctional Heart is run by CoreCivic, a non-public firm. It has declined to remark, referring all inquiries to ICE. The federal company had not but responded to inquiries as of Thursday.Damas is the 14th person to die in ICE custody this fiscal 12 months, in keeping with the company’s detainee deaths reporting web page. His loss of life provides to a rising record of issues concerning the medical care offered in personal detention services.
Christine Ellis, a Metropolis Council member representing Chandler, Ariz., and registered nurse of Haitian descent, has stepped ahead to symbolize the household. She mentioned Damas was first taken into custody in Boston earlier than being moved to the Florence facility.
“As a medical individual, I’m completely appalled that there have been medical-licensed folks that have been working there and allowed these issues to occur,” Ellis said.
She has already begun partaking Arizona’s congressional delegation to demand a proper investigation, insisting that “compassion, dignity, and accountability” have to be central to the therapy of all people, no matter their immigration standing.
Lethal spike for immigrants in custody
The loss of life of Emmanuel Damas is the newest in a rise in deaths. In 2025, ICE recorded 32 deaths, the best quantity in over 20 years, together with that of two different Haitians.
Jean-Wilson Brutus, 41, died in December 2025 inside simply 24 hours of getting into the Delaney Corridor detention heart in Newark, New Jersey. His household expressed outrage that ICE labeled Brutus a “prison unlawful alien” in official statements, noting he was truly fleeing violence in Haiti to hunt asylum. They’ve since employed civil rights attorneys to launch an impartial investigation.
Earlier that 12 months, Marie Ange Blaise died on the Broward Transitional Heart in Pompano Seaside, Fla. The 44-year-old Haitian girl had been detained within the U.S. Virgin Islands throughout a February 2025 encounter. She died in April 2025 following allegations of insufficient medical consideration, prompting requires investigations.
The U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), which oversees ICE, continues to be investigating the incident.
The mounting loss of life toll has reignited calls from human rights organizations and lawmakers to finish the usage of for-profit detention facilities.