Lawmakers are demanding an investigation after a man from Haiti who was seeking asylum in Massachusetts died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Emmanuel Damas, 56, of Dorchester, died March 2 at a hospital in Arizona. He was taken into ICE custody in Boston in September 2025 and had been held at an ICE detention center in Florence, Arizona, for the last four months.
Presly Nelson 
Last month, Damas told staff there he had a bad toothache; it got worse, and he was taken to the hospital on Feb. 19, according to his brother, Presly Nelson. The next day, Nelson said Damas was on life support in intensive care with pneumonia. On Feb. 23, Nelson said ICE told him Damas was back at the detention center in Florence, but there was no update on his condition.
Several days later, Nelson learned that his brother was in the hospital again and was scheduled to have surgery on Feb. 26. Damas died on Monday, March 2. It’s still not clear what caused his death.
On Thursday, Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Rep. Ayanna Pressley wrote a letter to the heads of Homeland Security and ICE demanding answers.
“ICE’s failure to provide timely medical care to Mr. Damas appears to have contributed to his worsening medical condition and tragic death,” they wrote. “Mr. Damas’s family has alleged that ICE failed to provide Mr. Damas with timely medical care, allowing an untreated toothache to become a deadly infection.”
In their letter, Pressley, Markey and Warren said Damas’s death was “highly preventable” and the case “raises serious questions regarding ICE’s ability to timely treat and care for individuals it detains.”
Pressley said Damas is at least the 10th person to die in ICE custody this year.
CBS News Boston reached out to ICE Thursday afternoon for comment on the Damas case.
“We’re working on a release on this issue. As soon as its approved, I’ll make sure you get it,” ICE spokesman Tim Oberle replied in an email.
The press release had not been issued as of Friday morning.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmanuel-damas-ice-death-toothache-boston-arizona/
