The mother of Haitian asylum seeker Emmanuel Damas had one request of the federal agents guarding her unconscious son Monday, as he lay near death in a Scottsdale hospital: Remove the plastic handcuffs from Damas' hands and legs before the family took him off life support.
On March 2, after guards removed the restraints, Damas' relatives said goodbye to the 56-year-old father, who had been held in ICE detention at Florence Correctional Center for nearly five months before dying, likely from complications of an untreated tooth infection, said Damas' younger brother, Presly Nelson.
As Damas took his last breath, "I told him, 'Travel in peace and in love,' and asked the angel of death to welcome him," Nelson told the Arizona Daily Star. "I said, 'I will take care of your son, don't worry.'"
Damas' death came weeks after the man began experiencing severe tooth pain at Florence. One of Damas' doctors said a tooth infection likely led to the lung infection that caused septic shock, Nelson said.
The family is demanding an investigation into Damas' "totally unnecessary" death, said Nelson, who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, mostly in Boston, where Damas was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September 2025.
"I need to know what happened here," Nelson said. "If there is negligence, then whoever dropped the ball needs to be accountable for it. If this is how the policy is set up, then those protocols need to be reviewed. Because in the last few months, we have too many of those deaths" in ICE custody.
Haitian asylum seeker Emmanuel Damas, second from right, is pictured with his family in Boston, including brother Presly Nelson, center, and his mother Marie, third from right.
Nelson sponsored his brother to come to the U.S. legally, through a Biden-era parole program, in 2024, he said. The family was in the process of appealing the denial of his asylum petition.
Deaths in ICE detention are soaring under President Donald Trump's administration, with 10 detainee deaths in 2026, and at least 32 deaths in 2025 — triple the figure for 2024.
Florence is run by private, for-profit prison company CoreCivic, which handles medical care at the facility. CoreCivic declined to answer questions about Damas' treatment and death, referring the Star to ICE.
ICE posted a news release about Damas' death Friday afternoon, which did not mention Damas' tooth pain. The release said his "likely diagnosis" was septic shock due to pneumonia.
Damas' family also claims ICE and Florence staff denied them permission to visit Damas in the hospital for more than a week, despite his dire medical condition.
Nelson said nurses and doctors who were initially sharing updates on Damas' status suddenly stopped doing so, after a warning from ICE.
"They (ICE) called the hospital and said, 'Absolutely do not divulge any information,'" he said, recounting what a nurse told him. "It was a nightmare. ... I said, 'Can you please tell me if he's alive?' She said, 'I can tell you he's alive, but I can't tell you anything else.'"
In its release, ICE said its medical liaison told Damas' family "they were permitted to visit him" on Feb. 28, nine days after he was hospitalized.
Laken Riley Act
ICE said Damas was detained under the Laken Riley Act — named for Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed by a Venezuelan immigrant — "which mandates the detention of individuals with pending immigration cases who pose a risk to public safety." (ICE's release misspelled the murdered nursing student's name twice, as "Lanken Riley.")
U.S. Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrats, both supported the legislation last year, which critics argued mandated ICE to detain immigrants merely accused of crimes, including shoplifting.
ICE claimed Damas was facing criminal charges for assault and battery, but his family disputes that: Nelson said his brother was detained by ICE last year, after a neighbor called the police when they saw Nelson's then 12-year-old son, who looks young for his age, outside alone at night.
Damas was arrested after police saw him smack his son on the back of the head, as officers were leaving the scene, Nelson said. Damas wasn't charged with anything before he was picked up by ICE later that night, Nelson said.
A spokesman for the District Attorney's Office in Suffolk County, Mass., said Friday afternoon it had no record of charges against Damas.
'Thought he was faking it'
Damas — who usually called his family five or six times a day from the Florence detention center — had been complaining of tooth pain for about a week, starting in mid-February, but CoreCivic staff just gave him ibuprofen, Nelson said. Damas' neck later began swelling, too, he said.
ICE's National Detention Standards say, "Emergency dental treatment shall be provided for immediate relief of pain, trauma, and acute oral infection."
Haitian asylum seeker Emmanuel Damas, 56, spent his final days in a Scottsdale hospital after developing a serious tooth infection at Florence Correctional Center, where he had been held in ICE custody for nearly five months. Damas' family said he was restrained by plastic handcuffs while unconscious and intubated at the hospital. His mother, Marie, asked for the restraints to be removed before her son was taken off life support. After hospital staff made some phone calls, federal agents removed the restraints from Damas' hands and legs, and the family said goodbye on March 2, said Presly Nelson, Damas' younger brother. Nelson is demanding an investigation into what he called Damas' "unnecessary" death.
But a detainee at Florence told Damas' family that facility staff laughed at Damas as he cried and pleaded for help, Nelson said.
"They thought he was faking it," he said. "They did not take him seriously."
Damas, who did not speak English well, was only taken to the hospital after he collapsed and could no longer stand on Feb. 19, Nelson said.
He was treated at the HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center intensive care unit, before he was transferred to Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center on Feb. 25 for a "higher level of care," ICE said.
Doctors said Damas had a severe case of pneumonia, likely stemming from the untreated tooth infection, which he could have aspirated to his lungs, Nelson said.
"One of the doctors said, yes, it's likely the tooth infection got to his throat, then his lungs, and that's when he went septic," he said.
Before his death Damas underwent surgery — in the mouth, throat and lungs — which doctors said was his only chance of survival, but he never regained consciousness, Nelson said.
The family is waiting for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner to finish its autopsy, and then will take Damas' body back to the East Coast for their own private autopsy.
Chandler City Councilwoman Christine Ellis, a registered nurse who is Haitian-American, has also called for an investigation into Damas' death. Ellis said she learned of Damas' death from his family and shared their story in a Tuesday Instagram post.
"Nobody should die from a toothache," Ellis told the Star. "Something has to be done."
Dental care critical to health
Medical experts say untreated tooth or gum infections can have dire health consequences. An infection in the teeth or gingivitis increases inflammation throughout the body, raising the risk of a heart attack. If left untreated, bacteria from a tooth infection can spread to the brain, heart, neck or lungs, with potentially fatal consequences, experts say.
The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project has long documented substandard medical care for immigrants in ICE custody, especially dental care, said Laura St. John, legal director for the advocacy group, in an emailed statement.
"We do not have any information on Mr. Damas’ specific case at this time ... but we do know ICE custody," St. John said. "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. 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."
Damas may have suffered from "Ludwig's angina," a fast-moving, life-threatening infection that often starts in an abscessed tooth, said Dr. John Osborn, a dentist and volunteer director for Remote Area Medical, or RAM, which provides free dental care in low-income communities.
"There are all kinds of scenarios that can be fatal in this situation," especially if someone has a weakened immune system, Obsorn said. RAM's most recent three-day clinic in Knoxville, Tenn., held under a massive tent, drew 1,200 people in need of care, he said. Some waited in their cars for two days to see a dentist, he said.
Throughout the U.S., "there is a desperate need for dental care," Obsorn said. "There are so many situations where people don't get the dental care they need, either for financial reasons or just out of fear, and that leads to really poor health outcomes."
In 2007, 12-year-old Deamonte Driver of Maryland died after an untreated tooth infection spread to his brain. His emergency treatment and hospital stay cost more than $250,000, while a timely $80 tooth extraction would have likely saved his life, The Washington Post reported at the time.
Nelson said his family is trying to understand whether cost was the reason his brother wasn't promptly taken to a dentist.
"I don't know if it was negligence or if it was laziness. I have no idea," he said. "But what I know, for a tooth infection or toothache, you sent somebody to the dentist and you get antibiotics. ... They didn’t want to do that for whatever reason."
Instead, after the infection progressed, "they sent him to a hospital bed for 11 days on a ventilator. How much did that cost? I’d love to see that hospital bill," Nelson said. "On top of that you have two security guards around the clock for the last 11 days, watching him. How much did that cost? Two guys sitting here doing nothing ... just using taxpayers' money."
Nelson said the constant presence of the guards was disconcerting as the family visited Damas, who did not regain consciousness during their visits.
Haitian national Emmanuel Damas died Monday while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was detaining him at Florence Correctional Center, after suffering from an infected tooth, according to his family and Chandler City Councilwoman Christine Ellis.
"They never left the room. We could not even have a private moment as a family," he said. "One of them seemed to be compassionate; I could see it in his eyes."
Legislators demand investigation
Several U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into Damas' death, including Massachusetts Democrats Sen. Edward J. Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, as well as Arizona U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton and Adelita Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, who called Damas' death "preventable."
"I am sickened by reports that yet another person has died in ICE custody after being left without basic medical care. A toothache should not be a death sentence," Grijalva said in a statement. "... In other facilities, children with burning fevers are in medical distress because this administration is obsessed with meeting arbitrary deportation quotas, cramming people into detention facilities, and neglecting their most basic medical needs in order to maximize profits for private prison companies."
The first-term congresswoman made her first oversight visit to an ICE facility last month, meeting with 79-year-old Cuban asylum seeker, Julia Benitez, at Eloy Detention Center.
Grijalva learned of the woman's plight from a Feb. 15 Star investigation, which highlighted Benitez's physical and mental decline after nine months in ICE custody. Eleven days after the Star's investigation was published, and after Grijalva began advocating for the woman's release, ICE released Benitez on humanitarian parole to the care of her family.
Nelson, 47, remembered his brother as compassionate and generous. After Damas got his first paycheck from his job in Boston, cleaning vehicles for a transportation company, he sent nearly all of his earnings to friends struggling in Haiti, Nelson said.
Damas' family is still in disbelief that he could have died in this way in the U.S., Nelson said.
"We come from a third-world country… (In Haiti,) people are dying from a toothache because there is no dentist nearby," Nelson said. "But this is the United States of America. And it is very shameful to see people are dying like this, for nonsense."
Nelson asked for prayers for their 76-year-old mother, Marie, who is struggling to cope with her eldest son's death.
"I wish prayers could keep her strong, so I don't have to bury two people close to me in such a short amount of time," he said.
