Third Haitian detainee dies in ICE custody, this time after untreated toothache

PHOENIX (AP)  — The family of a Haitian man who fell ill inside an Arizona immigration detention center says he died Monday after his tooth infection went untreated by staff at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Emmanuel Damas, 56, is the third Haitian reported dead in federal custody since April 2025, amid skyrocketing detentions to meet the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals.

“As a country — I’m an American now — I think we can do better than that,” Damas’s brother Presly Nelson said Wednesday. 

Damas had been in custody since September and was being held even after his asylum application was denied. Damas first told medical workers at the Florence Correctional Center about his toothache in mid-February. Despite his pain, his brother says he was never sent to see a dentist.

Florence Correctional Center is run by CoreCivic, a private company. It has declined to comment, referring all questions to ICE. The federal agency had not yet responded to inquiries as of Thursday.Damas is the 14th person to die in ICE custody this fiscal year, according to the agency’s detainee deaths reporting page. His death adds to a growing list of concerns regarding the medical care provided in private detention facilities.

Christine Ellis, a City Council member representing Chandler, Ariz., and registered nurse of Haitian descent, has stepped forward to represent the family. She said Damas was first taken into custody in Boston before being moved to the Florence facility.

“As a medical person, I am absolutely appalled that there were medical-licensed people that were working there and allowed those things to happen,” Ellis stated. 

She has already begun engaging Arizona’s congressional delegation to demand a formal investigation, insisting that “compassion, dignity, and accountability” must be central to the treatment of all individuals, regardless of their immigration status.

Deadly spike for immigrants in custody

The death of Emmanuel Damas is the latest in an increase in deaths. In 2025, ICE recorded 32 deaths, the highest number in over 20 years, including that of two other Haitians.

Jean-Wilson Brutus, 41, died in December 2025 within just 24 hours of entering the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey. His family expressed outrage that ICE labeled Brutus a “criminal illegal alien” in official statements, noting he was actually fleeing violence in Haiti to seek asylum. They have since hired civil rights attorneys to launch an independent investigation. 

Earlier that year, Marie Ange Blaise died at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Fla. The 44-year-old Haitian woman had been detained in the U.S. Virgin Islands during a February 2025 encounter. She died in April 2025 following allegations of inadequate medical attention, prompting calls for investigations.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, is still investigating the incident.

The mounting death toll has reignited calls from human rights organizations and lawmakers to end the use of for-profit detention centers. 

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