An autopsy report released on Monday has confirmed that the death of a Haitian man who spent months in an Arizona immigration detention facility was related to his dental problems, as his family had claimed. The report, from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, concluded that 56-year-old Emmanuel Damas died from complications of a chest infection with abscesses in his neck and throat, citing his severe dental issues as a contributing factor.
According to the report, Damas had declined recommendations at dental appointments to have problematic teeth removed. During an October dental exam, it was suggested that he have a particular tooth extracted, but when the procedure became available three months later, he refused, stating that it no longer hurt. At a subsequent appointment in mid-February, he again declined further extractions.
Days after his last dental appointment, Damas complained of a sore throat and abdominal pain. Staff at the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center asked him to visit the medical unit, but he refused. He was eventually taken to a hospital on 19 February for respiratory failure and later transferred for higher-level care, dying on 2 March at a hospital in Scottsdale.
Damas is one of at least 51 detainees who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since President Donald Trump’s second term began in January 2025. Medical examiners have ruled most of these deaths as natural causes, though experts suggest many were preventable with timely medical care. Damas’s case is the only one where dental problems have been listed as a cause or contributing factor among three dozen deaths for which information has been released.
Raymond Audain, a lawyer representing Damas’s family, stated that the death resulted from failures by ICE and CoreCivic, the private company operating the Florence facility, to provide basic medical care. He noted that Damas had begged for medical attention on numerous occasions, including the night before he was hospitalised, but was ignored. CoreCivic expressed commitment to providing safe and humane care, while the AP sought comment from ICE.
