Haitian asylum seeker dies in ICE custody after untreated tooth infection

Emmanuel Damas died after a dental infection turned fatal inside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, a case that has sharpened scrutiny of how quickly a treatable condition can become a death sentence behind detention walls.

Damas was 56, Haitian, and seeking asylum when he died March 2 at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. He had been in ICE custody since September 2025, and local reporting placed him at Florence Correctional Center in Florence, a private facility operated by CoreCivic under contract with ICE. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office issued a preliminary finding linking his death to a severe infection tied to dental disease.

Family members said Damas had complained for weeks about a toothache and believed the infection went untreated while he was detained. Coverage of the case described the illness as spreading beyond the tooth, with references to severe mouth, throat and chest infection, necrotizing mediastinitis and septic shock. Those descriptions point to a condition that can become rapidly life-threatening when basic care, antibiotics and timely transfer are delayed.

ICE’s own timeline said Damas complained of shortness of breath on Feb. 19 and was taken to a hospital near Florence before being transferred to Scottsdale, where he later died. That sequence has raised questions about the gap between a detainee reporting pain and the point at which emergency care reached him. It also places a harsh spotlight on triage inside immigration detention, where complaints that begin as a toothache can escalate into a systemic infection if they are not aggressively evaluated.

The death drew criticism from immigrant advocates and Democratic lawmakers, who said Damas was denied adequate medical care and called for accountability and oversight. On March 26, Yassamin Ansari said she visited Florence Correctional Center after Damas died, and congressional remarks described him as possibly the 10th person to die in ICE custody in 2026. That figure, if borne out, would suggest Damas was not an isolated tragedy but part of a broader pattern demanding closer examination of medical staffing, referrals and oversight in ICE facilities.

For Damas, a complaint about tooth pain ended in a hospital death. For the system that held him, the case poses a more basic question: how many other preventable illnesses are being allowed to worsen before detention authorities act?