Haitian Asylum Seeker Dies in ICE Detention After Weeks Without Dental Care

Emmanuel Damas, a 56-year-old Haitian asylum seeker, died Monday in U.S. federal custody after weeks without dental care, according to family and Arizona officials.

A father of two, Damas fled Haiti to seek asylum in the United States, where he worked as a handyman. He entered the country in 2024 under humanitarian protections granted by the Biden administration; those protections expired in 2026, after which he was arrested in Boston in September 2025 and later transferred to an ICE detention facility in Arizona, The Independent reported.

According to his brother, Presley Nelson, Damas began complaining of a toothache on February 12. He received nothing but ibuprofen. After two weeks without adequate medical care, he collapsed and was transferred to a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona.

By the time his family arrived from Boston, he was already on a ventilator. He remained in a coma for nine days before dying on March 2, 2026.

“We believe in God. We thought a miracle could happen,” his brother told ABC15.

Christine Ellis, a Chandler City Council member and registered nurse, learned the details of Damas’s death directly from his family, who provided her with photographs showing him unconscious and intubated in an intensive care unit. Ellis shared the images on Instagram.

“The fact that he did not receive timely medical attention raises serious and painful concerns about the quality of care provided to individuals in custody,” she wrote. Ellis, who describes herself as “deeply heartbroken” by the death, is Haitian-American.

Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari also responded sharply. “No one should die under such horrific conditions,” she said. “After four oversight visits to ICE facilities in Arizona, I have witnessed inhumane treatment and medical neglect firsthand. I will continue fighting to stop this.”

Damas’s death is part of a deeply troubling pattern. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, at least 35 people have died in federal immigration custody. ICE has officially acknowledged eight deaths so far this year; local officials in Arizona and California have reported two additional in-custody deaths. In New York, authorities are also investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a Rohingya refugee last seen in Border Patrol custody.

Damas is believed to be the tenth person to die in ICE custody since the beginning of 2026.

The number of people held by ICE has grown sharply since the start of Trump’s second term, surpassing 60,000 detainees at any given time across facilities nationwide. Those facilities are the subject of ongoing litigation alleging unsanitary and inhumane conditions, measles outbreaks reported in at least two centers, and allegations of medical mistreatment of children held in a sprawling family detention camp.

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly defended the quality of medical care provided to detained immigrants. In a statement to The Independent last month, an agency spokesperson said detainees receive “comprehensive medical care” from the moment they enter ICE custody, including medical, dental, and mental health screenings within twelve hours of arrival.

“This is the best healthcare many of these aliens have ever received in their entire lives,” the spokesperson added.

Damas’s death raises serious questions about those claims.

Source: The Independent