Overview:
Emmanuel Cleeford Damas, a 56-year-old Haitian asylum seeker, died on March 2 at a Scottsdale hospital after a toothache went untreated at a CoreCivic-operated ICE detention facility in Florence, Arizona. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner has since confirmed he died from issues of a extreme dental an infection. His demise is one in all 52 in ICE custody since January 2025, renewing issues about medical neglect in immigration detention.
This report was first published by the Tucson Sentinel.
By Paul Ingram
Emmanuel Cleeford Damas, 56, died on March 2 at a Scottsdale hospital weeks after he complained of a toothache whereas in custody at a personal jail operated by CoreCivic beneath contract for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The preliminary report revealed Wednesday stated Damas died from “issues of necrotizing mediastinitis with neck and retropharyngeal abscess within the setting of extreme dental caries and periodontal illness.”
Necrotizing mediastinitis is a uncommon, life-threatening complication brought on by an abscess within the deep points behind the again of the throat.
Damas was being held on the Florence Correctional Middle within the small central Arizona city that’s the website of quite a few prisons and detention facilities, together with these run by the state and CoreCivic.
He’s among the many 52 individuals who have died in ICE custody because the Trump administration started in January 2025, and amongst 18 individuals have died in custody simply this yr. Advocates have warned that ought to this tempo proceed, 2026 would be the deadliest yr for immigration detainees on report.
“The medical expert’s preliminary findings make this preventable tragedy much more horrifying. A toothache ought to by no means escalate right into a deadly medical emergency, particularly whereas somebody is in authorities custody and completely depending on detention employees for entry to care,” stated U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva in a press release on Wednesday.
Grijalva has remained stridently essential of how ICE manages the detention of immigrants, and has repeatedly used her workplace to examine services in Arizona, together with the company’s Florence Staging Facility last week.
“This raises severe and nonetheless unanswered questions on why Emmanuel Damas did not obtain well timed medical consideration and why repeated requests for care have been ignored. In March, my colleagues and I formally requested Mr. Damas’ medical information of care, complaints made to employees, and a full accounting of the circumstances resulting in his demise. Thus far, my workplace has not obtained the complete information, transparency, or accountability that his household deserves,” Grijalva stated.
“In Arizona and throughout the nation, we proceed to see a deeply disturbing sample of medical neglect, delayed remedy, and systemic cruelty inside ICE detention facilities. When the federal authorities detains somebody, it assumes duty for his or her security, well being, and well-being. That is precisely why sturdy congressional oversight is crucial. Mr. Damas deserved to be handled with dignity. As a substitute, he died in federal custody from a preventable situation.”
Details of Damas’ case were provided to the Tucson Sentinel in March by Christine Ellis, a nurse who sits on the Chandler Metropolis Council who was contacted by the person’s brother.
On Feb. 12, Damas instructed relations he had a toothache, and was despatched to the infirmary the place a CoreCivic worker gave him ibuprofen, Ellis instructed the Sentinel. His ache continued and he was once more given painkillers, at the same time as his face swelled up and his ache worsened, Ellis stated.
Just a few days later, on Feb. 19, Damas collapsed. Days later, officers on the hospital known as his brother who stated Damas confronted a “grave state of affairs” and that he’d been intubated and he wanted surgical procedure to fight the an infection behind his mouth and his throat.
Later, whereas his brother struggled to seek out Damas and learn the way he was doing, officers known as and stated the household wanted to come back to the hospital.
“If you may get right here, get right here,” they instructed Damas’ brother, Ellis stated.
Days after Damas’ demise, on March 6, ICE launched a statement confirming particulars laid out by Ellis and relations.
ICE officers stated Damas was arrested by Boston police for assault and battery on Sept. 14 and ICE officers took him from custody and held him beneath the Laiken Riley Act, which “mandates the detention of people with pending immigration circumstances who pose a threat to public security.”
ICE stated Damas was given a medical screening and employees “discovered no severe new medical points however ensured he would hold receiving prescriptions for a preexisting medical situation.” He was flown to the Florence Detention Middle on Sept. 27 the place he stayed via January whereas interesting his case.
On Feb. 19, Damas reported shortness of breath and was “instantly despatched” to a hospital in Florence, ICE stated. He was later transferred to the John C. Lincoln Medical Middle in Scottsdale and positioned within the intensive care unit. On Feb. 22, medical employees continued to deal with him for a large an infection, and identified the 56-year-old man with “septic shock resulting from pneumonia.”
Hospital employees continued to deal with him, together with a surgical procedure to take away broken tissue in his proper lung, and on Feb. 28, the medical liaison at ICE instructed Damas’ household they may go to him. By March 2, he was lifeless.
Below company coverage, ICE instructed the Division of Homeland Safety’s Workplace of Inspector Normal, ICE’s Workplace of Skilled Accountability and the Haitian consulate about Damas’ demise.
“ICE is dedicated to making sure that each one these in custody reside in protected, safe and humane environments,” the company stated in a press release. “Complete medical care is supplied from the second people arrive and all through the whole thing of their keep. All individuals in ICE custody obtain medical, dental and psychological well being consumption screenings inside 12 hours of arriving at every detention facility; a full well being evaluation inside 14 days of getting into ICE custody or arrival at a facility; entry to medical appointments; and 24-hour emergency care. At no time throughout detention is a detained alien denied emergency care.”
In March, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project stated they have been seeing an “alarming enhance” within the variety of individuals in ICE custody going through “doubtlessly life-threatening medical neglect.”
This contains individuals who have “extreme medical points or power diseases,” and the nonprofit authorized assist group attributed the shift to ICE’s transfer to “detain everybody, no matter their medical historical past, no matter whether or not they can receive the medical care they want in ICE custody, and no matter how unsafe detention circumstances can be for them.”
ICE strikes to broaden detention
Through the first 9 months of the Trump administration, ICE arrests quadrupled, together with each avenue arrests and transfers from jails and prisons to ICE, in keeping with knowledge analyzed by the Deportation Data Project. Whereas avenue arrests spiked, so did the variety of individuals arrested with out prison conviction.
Additional, the administration “roughly tripled the variety of detention beds used for individuals arrested inside the USA.”
“That capability enhance was a consequence each of latest funding (for brand spanking new detention facilities and extra beds in present detention facilities) and of a lower in arrests on the border,” they stated. “As soon as arrested, few have been launched.”
They famous that releases have declined, whereas deportations haven’t risen rapidly. “Maybe due to the decrease launch price, voluntary departures (that are uncommon in comparison with removals) elevated by 21 occasions,” they stated, indicating many individuals gave up on their circumstances whereas in detention.
This yr, ICE has rapidly moved to quickly broaden its detention capabilities fueled by the large inflow of funding created after Congress handed H.R. 1, the so-called “One Massive Stunning Invoice Act.” The laws laid out billions for border enforcement and immigration, together with $45 billion to broaden detention capability, and tripling ICE’s detention finances to at the very least $14 billion per yr.
The invoice additionally gave ICE’s Enforcement and Elimination Operations — the arm primarily chargeable for arresting and deporting immigrants within the U.S. inside — practically $30 billion. With the invoice, ICE has funding for as much as 135,000 detention beds via the top of the 2029 fiscal yr, AILA stated.
As a part of this, ICE launched the Detention Reengineering Initiative, designed to “strategically enhance mattress capability to 92,600 beds” utilizing non-public and public services, together with warehouses that would maintain as much as 10,000 individuals.
In the meantime, the company has sought to reopen a privately run jail close to Marana to be used as a detention heart for a whole bunch of individuals taken into federal immigration custody in Southern Arizona.
‘Tremendously affecting’
The Trump administration moved swiftly to cancel or undermine a raft of protections for immigrants. Since his inauguration, greater than 1.5 million immigrants both misplaced or will lose their momentary authorized standing, together with work authorizations and deportation protections, State Newsroom reported.
Haitians have lengthy had Momentary Protected Standing (TPS) following a devastating earthquake in 2010, however Homeland Safety’s Noem has repeatedly fought to strip away this security resulting in a current courtroom battle. On Feb. 3, Noem decided Haiti — a rustic the place widespread gang violence continues — doesn’t meet the circumstances to offer individuals within the U.S. protected standing.
“Haiti’s TPS designation and associated advantages have been slated to terminate” on Feb. 3, DHS wrote, nonetheless “a single choose within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia issued an order staying the secretary’s TPS termination resolution.”
“The choose did so regardless that the Division of Homeland Safety not too long ago prevailed twice within the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in an analogous case,” DHS officers stated. “The Division of Homeland Safety vehemently disagrees with this order and is working with the Division of Justice to find out subsequent steps.”
Ellis stated in March the Haitian group within the Phoenix space is small and comparatively tight-knit, and over the previous yr, Haitian immigrants have tried to maintain monitor of one another.
“It’s tremendously affecting,” Ellis instructed the Tucson Sentinel in March. “The federal government created a pathway for individuals to come back right here, they usually have been all doing the issues they wanted to, leaping via all the precise hoops and vetting. They contribute, they stimulate the economic system. Wherever Haitians landed, the group thrived.”