A Haitian man died in U.S. immigration custody after a tooth infection was left untreated, his brother announced on Wednesday (March 4) via ABC News.
Emmanuel Damas, 56, reportedly told medical personnel at the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona that he was experienced a toothache in mid-February, but wasn’t sent to a dentist for treatment, his brother, Presly Nelson, confirmed. Nelson said the staff didn’t take his brother’s complaints about the treatable condition seriously, which he would expect to be the case in countries with less access to health care but not the United States.
“As a country — I’m an American now — I think we can do better than that,” Nelson said via ABC News.
Damas is the latest among nine reported deaths to migrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this year. ABC News said it reached out to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment but didn’t receive an immediate response, while ICE said it hoped to share a news release on Wednesday, however, the last one shared on its website instead acknowledged the death of Mexican national Alberto Gutierrez-Reyes, who had been in custody in a California detention center before dying in the hospital after experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath on February 27.
Chandler City Council member Christine Ellis, a Haitian American registered nurse, confirmed that she was contacted by Damas’ family after his death.
“As a medical person, I am absolutely appalled that there were medical-licensed people that were working there and allowed those things to happen,” Ellis said via ABC News. “It does not make sense to me.”
Damas’ cause of death was listed as “pending” by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office as of Wednesday.
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