The Maricopa County Medical Examiner said Emmanuel Damas’ death is from severe dental disease.
PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Medical Examiner said the man who died while in ICE custody in March died of natural causes.
Emmanuel Damas died from “Complications of Necrotizing Mediastinitis with Neck and Retropharyngeal Abscess in the setting of Severe Dental Caries and Periodontal Disease,” according to the ME’s report.
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Damas, who lived in Boston, entered the United States legally through an asylum program, according to his family. He had been in the United States since 2024.
His brother, Presner Nelson, said Damas was arrested after a domestic dispute in Boston. When Presner went to post bail, he said he was told Damas had already been taken by another agency.
“Half an hour, 45 minutes later, there was an officer who came out and said to me, ‘Sorry, unfortunately, he was picked up by an agency,” Presner said. “And I said to him, ‘Was it ICE?’ He said, most likely, it was ICE.”
The family believes Damas was transported to New York, then transferred to the ICE detention center in Florence, Arizona, where he called family multiple times a day.
Presner said his brother began complaining about a toothache while in custody.
“They kept on giving him Tylenol, Ibuprofen, something of that nature, where they never bothered to take him to a hospital, to a dentist, to remove the tooth and give him some medication, a penicillin or something, to treat the infection,” Presner said.
Damas was eventually hospitalized in the Phoenix area. His brother Presly Nelson says he arrived to find Damas unresponsive and in restraints.
“The most hurtful thing, while he was there, he could not even open his eyes,” Presly said. “But he was still handcuffed.”
Doctors told the family the cause was an infection. Damas underwent surgery on his jaw, neck, and lungs, the Nelsons said. He survived the surgery, but never recovered.
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