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<\/p>\nThe Maricopa County Medical Examiner said Emmanuel Damas’ death is from severe dental disease. <\/p>\n
PHOENIX \u2014 The Maricopa County Medical Examiner said the man who died while in ICE custody in March died of natural causes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Presner said his brother began complaining about a toothache while in custody.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Damas was eventually hospitalized in the Phoenix area. His brother Presly Nelson says he arrived to find Damas unresponsive and in restraints.<\/p>\n
“The most hurtful thing, while he was there, he could not even open his eyes,” Presly said. “But he was still handcuffed.”<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n