A Haitian man seeking asylum and held at the Florence Detention Center became the tenth person to die in 2026 while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Emmanuel Damas died on Monday at a Scottsdale hospital after complaining of an untreated tooth infection that had been worsening since mid-February, an Arizona politician said Tuesday. But U.S. immigration officials said Damas was initially hospitalized for shortness of breath and that the preliminary cause of death was “unknown” to date.
Damas had been in ICE custody since officers detained him in Boston in September, according to Chandler Councilwoman Christine Ellis, a Haitian immigrant and the first Black woman to serve on the council.
“His reported struggle to receive timely medical attention before being transferred to a hospital raises serious and painful concerns about the quality of care provided to individuals in custody,” Ellis, a registered nurse, said Tuesday, citing conversations with his family.
Ellis shared an Instagram post showing Damas smiling in a gray shirt and tie, as well as a photo of him intubated in a hospital bed with his bare chest covered in medical intravenous lines.
The Arizona Daily Star first reported Damas’ death.
On Friday, ICE released additional information about his detention and the medical attention he received. In a statement, the federal agency said Boston police had arrested Damas on Sept. 14 for assault and battery. The next day, immigration officers took him into custody, citing the 2025 Laken Riley Act which requires federal officials to detain noncitizens arrested or charged with crimes.
ICE transferred Damas to the Florence Detention Center in September to await his immigration hearing. A judge ordered his removal in January but Damas appealed the decision, though he remained in detention, the agency said.
On Feb. 19, Damas was initially hospitalized at hospital in Florence for shortness of breath, and was then transferred to the John C. Lincoln Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit in Phoenix for greater care, according to ICE.
Medical staff there intubated Damas and placed him on a ventilator. They also conducted numerous tests and after several days determined that “the likely diagnosis to be septic shock due to pneumonia,” ICE’s statement said.
On Feb. 25, Damas was transferred to the Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center, where he underwent a minimally invasive chest procedure and remained in intensive care, breathing with the help of a ventilator. His condition did not improve and on Monday afternoon, doctors pronounced him dead.
The federal agency said they notified Damas’ family about his condition on Feb. 21. But they did not receive clearance from ICE to see him until Feb. 28. The following day they arrived to the hospital and stayed with him until his death.
Since the start of January, at least 10 people have died while in ICE custody, according to an online database maintained by longtime immigration researcher Austin Kocher. His database lists the deaths of three other people held at Arizona detention centers since President Donald Trump began his second term last year.
“A toothache should not be a death sentence,” Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva said in a statement Wednesday. She made her first oversight visit as a congresswoman to two detention centers in Eloy and Florence last week and met with some people detained at the facility.
“Emmanuel Damas should be alive today,” Grijalva added. “These are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters — people dying from simple, treatable ailments because they are being treated as less than human.”
Laura St. John, legal director for the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, said in a statement Wednesday that they have long documented the lack of constitutionally-required medical care at immigration detention facilities in Arizona.
“ICE routinely refuses dental care to people until they have been in custody for six months, and that clock typically resets each time someone is transferred,” St. John said. “Every person deserves appropriate medical and dental care, and we are deeply troubled by the reports of what Mr. Damas endured leading to his passing.”
This story has been updated with a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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