Unruly passenger detained after incident on Delta flight, police say

(NEW YORK) — Last week, Presner Nelson went to a shopping mall with one goal in mind: to find a suit his brother, who died in immigration federal custody in March, would wear in his casket.

Nelson’s brother, Emmanuel Damas, died after allegedly complaining for roughly two weeks of a toothache that Nelson believes could have been treated.

“This was the first time I had to do this in my life — it was not easy,” Nelson told ABC News.

The death of Damas, a Haitian immigrant who Nelson says arrived in the U.S. legally and had a pending Temporary Protected Status application, comes amid growing concerns from lawmakers and immigrant advocates about the conditions in migrant detention facilities, and a sharp increase in immigrant deaths in detention under the second Trump administration as it pursues its immigration crackdown.

Most deadly period
According to an ABC News analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data and the number of detainee deaths provided to Congress from ICE, the first 14 months of the second Trump administration represent the most deadly period for the federal detention system in recent years — with the exception of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic contributed to detention deaths.

As of March 25, 44 people have died in government custody during the current Trump administration, according to figures shared by lawmakers, with two of those fatalities being victims of a shooting last September at a Dallas detention facility. The rise in fatalities comes as the detention population reaches record highs, with over 70,000 people currently detained in federal immigration custody.

The data analysis reveals a stark and rapid acceleration in the mortality rate within federal facilities. While the figure was as low as one death per 100,000 admissions in 2022, that number surged to about seven deaths per 100,000 admissions in 2025, even when excluding the two people shot while in custody. And in just the first ten weeks of 2026, the rate is currently at 12 deaths per 100,000 admissions.

Using a methodology established by researchers and detention statistics provided by ICE, ABC News calculated estimated mortality rates per 100,000 detention admissions for the calendar years 2019-2025, plus Jan. 1 through March 16, 2026. Using a rate shows whether mortality is increasing beyond what would be expected from higher detention admissions alone.

“There is really no contest — fiscal year 2026 is on track to be the deadliest year ever in the history of ICE,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration policy expert with the American Immigration Council who did his own data analysis of ICE deaths.

“Things are dramatically worse this year. We are seeing more deaths than ever,” Reichlin-Melnick said.

Scrutiny over the deaths of detainees has grown as the Trump administration has pressured ICE to increase arrests and has dramatically expanded detention space by converting warehouses and other spaces into detention facilities. A document shared by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency with New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte shows the government expects to spend $38 billion converting these spaces and increasing detention capacity by 92,600 beds.

Under previous administrations, the government has found ways to mitigate the number of people in detention by enrolling detainees in “Alternatives for Detention” efforts, which can involve scheduling regular check-ins with ICE, and mandating the use of ankle monitors.

The Trump administration has doubled down on invoking mandatory detention for undocumented immigrants, and in some cases even for those who are in the process of obtaining legal status. The government has also restarted detaining families with children at facilities like the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.

“They’re making a decision to take a U.S. citizen child and detain them with their parents. They’re making a decision to detain someone who’s lived here peacefully for 20 years. That is their choice, and they need to be pushed further on that,” said Andrea Flores, an attorney and immigration policy expert who is a former DHS and White House official. “Nobody should lose their life because they went through our immigration system — but that, in and of itself, has been a problem across administrations. And so there’s been work that’s needed to be done on this.”

The case of Emmanuel Damas
In a statement, ICE described Damas as a “criminal illegal alien” arrested in Boston for assault and battery. His brother Nelson disputes this, saying Damas was in the country legally under a humanitarian parole program and had a pending petition for Temporary Protected Status. 

Nelson also said Damas was never convicted following his arrest and that the arrest stemmed from a misunderstanding when someone called police to report that Damas’ 12-year-old son appeared to be walking by himself on a sidewalk. Damas mistakenly believed his son had called the police on him, became angry, and gestured as if to hit him but never made physical contact, Nelson said.

Damas was taken to jail where he was transferred into ICE custody before Nelson could bail him out, Nelson said.

Nelson said when he last spoke on the phone with his brother on Feb. 16, Damas complained about a toothache he’d had for the last two weeks. According to Nelson, his brother had claimed he was denied multiple requests to see a dentist. 

Two days later Damas called their mother but he had difficulty speaking, Nelson said. Nelson believes his brother could not speak clearly because the toothache had developed into an abscess and his jaw had swollen. He did not complain of shortness of breath, Nelson said.

The next day, according to ICE, Damas was “immediately” taken to a hospital on Feb. 19 after allegedly reporting shortness of breath and was subsequently transferred to an Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Phoenix for a “higher level of care.”

It’s unclear when he was placed on a ventilator, but ICE said that by Feb. 20, Damas “remained intubated” and underwent a series of tests.

On Feb. 22, the hospital in Phoenix “reported the likely diagnosis to be septic shock due to pneumonia,” ICE said.

Before he was transferred to Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center on Feb. 25, Damas “had two chest tubes placed on his right side and a thoracentesis was completed to help remove excess fluid from the pleural spaces around the lungs,” ICE said.

On Feb. 28, Nelson said his family was told they’d be allowed to visit him in the hospital and four of his relatives, including his mother, were able to see him the next day.

“But at that point on, it was too late, there was not much I could be done to save his life,” Nelson said. “So when my mom got there, he was in a coma.”

At 1:12 p.m. on March 2, Damas was pronounced deceased.

In a statement provided to ABC News about Damas and the number of recent detainee deaths, a DHS spokesperson said Damas “refused” dental extraction and had claimed in January that his toothache had gone away. The spokesperson said that in February, Damas was again seen “for bleeding gums and loose front teeth” and again refused to have two teeth extracted.

“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an individual enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services, access to medical appointments, and 24-hour emergency care,” the spokesperson said. “Many individuals receive healthcare in ICE custody that exceeds what they have previously experienced.”

Damas believes his brother would be alive if he had received adequate medical care for his toothache.

“They waited for too long to take him to the hospital to be seen by a dentist. So on the nineteenth, when they finally realized, it was too late because he had that infection going on for two weeks,” Nelson said. “He asked for help for two weeks — they said that he was faking it.”

‘Presumed suicides’
The recent surge in detainee deaths includes a number of “presumed suicides,” including 19-year-old Royer Perez-Jimenez, who died on March 16 in Florida, and Victor Manuel Diaz, who died in a Texas facility in January.

In a press release, DHS said that Diaz died in ICE custody on Jan. 14 at Camp East Montana in El Paso, after staff found him “unconscious and unresponsive in his room.” A DHS spokesperson confirmed this month that Perez-Jimenez was found “unconscious and unresponsive” by a Glades County detention officer.

While the department noted that “the official cause of death remains under investigation,” they labeled the incident a “presumed suicide.” However, Diaz’s family told ABC News they do not believe he took his own life and are calling for a full investigation.

“Suicide is a preventable cause of death for people in custody,” Reichlin-Melnick told ABC News. “It’s something that jails should be working to prevent, and yet we’ve now had three or four suicides just in 2026 alone, including the 19‑year‑old who died recently.”

Questions regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s statements about ICE deaths have been further fueled by the case of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant who died at the Camp East Montana facility in January.

While DHS initially stated Campos died after “experiencing medical distress,” an autopsy report from the El Paso County Medical Examiner later ruled the death a homicide, citing “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”

Attorneys for the Campos family filed an emergency petition in January to stop the deportation of witnesses who alleged guards choked and asphyxiated him.

For families like these, answers about their relatives’ death can be hard to come by.

“We don’t know what happened to him in that place,” a sibling of Diaz recently told ABC News in Spanish.

Nelson says he already knows why his brother is gone.

“Gross negligence,” he said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich.) — Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said that 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali — the suspect involved in the shooting and vehicle-ramming attack at a Detroit-area synagogue on Thursday — had “lost several members of his own family … in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”

Strongly condemning the attack, Baydoun said “everyone deserves to worship in peace and we must unequivocally condemn any attack on a house of worship or the people within it.”

“We learned that the individual responsible for the incident that took place at Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield was a resident of Dearborn Heights,” Baydoun continued. “He died at the scene. Earlier this month, he lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”

Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin also vehemently condemned the attack, saying she is “so sick” of these incidents happening both within her community and across the country.

“Everyone deserves the right to worship in peace. Everyone. An act of antisemitism, an act of violence, of hate, should be treated to the fullest extent of the law,” Slotkin told ABC News on Thursday. “And I’m so sick of another one of these incidents all the time in my community, across the country. And I just — I think we need to acknowledge that we have a problem, and I’m just sick about it.”

Ghazali, who was armed with a rifle, died after a shootout with security at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said earlier.

Nobody inside the synagogue was hurt, and the synagogue noted that all 140 students as well as staff, teachers and “heroic security personnel” were accounted for, according to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.

“This tragedy comes at a time when communities everywhere are confronting rising hate and senseless violence. No matter where violence occurs, whether in West Bloomfield or anywhere around in the world, harm against innocent people is something we must all stand firmly against,” Baydoun said. “The tensions we see across the world too often find their way into our own neighborhoods, reminding us how deeply connected our shared safety is.”

The sheriff said one synagogue security guard was hit by the suspect’s truck in the incident and was “knocked unconscious” but was expected to be okay.

There were no other injuries in the attack, though 30 law enforcement officers were transported to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, according to Bouchard.

“I want our community to know that we are working closely with our police department and regional partners to protect the safety of every house of worship in our city,” said Baydoun. “I urge residents to stay aware and vigilant, especially as we gather during these sacred final days of Ramadan. Let’s continue to care for one another and pay attention to anything that feels out of place … “My heart is with everyone affected by these deeply painful events.”

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(NEW YORK) — It has been a tale of two winters on the opposing U.S. coasts this season.

While the East has been slammed with frigid temperatures and punishing winter storms, the West is experiencing a snow drought amid warmer-than-normal temperatures.

Prolonged drought across much of the West has been worsened this winter by below‑average snowfall and persistent warmth, fueling a widespread and intensifying snow drought. With sharply reduced mountain snowpack, the region’s water supplies and winter tourism are facing mounting challenges, experts told ABC News.

“This winter, we’ve just had an extreme lack of storm activity, and the storms that we have had have either brought very small amounts of snowfall or have brought rain,” Jon Meyer, assistant Utah state climatologist, told ABC News.

Warm temperatures have prevented snow from accumulating

Much of the western United States entered winter already grappling with a lack of rain. Widespread moderate to severe drought conditions stretched from New Mexico to Washington, including much of the Colorado River Basin, leaving soil moisture low and reservoir levels depleted heading into the season.

More than one-third of the West is currently facing some form of drought condition, with much of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico experiencing a moderate drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Mitigation Center’s U.S. Drought Monitor.

Utah is facing the worst drought conditions among western states, with more than 94% of the state experiencing what the USDM categorizes as a Moderate Drought and more than 40% of the state experiencing Severe Drought.

Salt Lake City has only received a tenth of an inch of snow so far this season – the lowest to date since records began in 1874, according to the National Weather Service. Their lowest seasonal snowfall was 14.3 inches during the winter of 1933-34. By comparison, parts of the Southeast, which typically don’t see much snowfall, have seen more snow than Salt Lake City this season.

“Just totally uncharted territory for the amount of low-elevation and mid-elevation snowfall Utah has seen, and that’s a pattern that’s played out across much of the Western U.S.,” Meyer said.

While many western states received average or above-average precipitation in the fall and early winter, warmer temperatures caused much of it to fall as rain rather than snow, leading to unusually low snowpack and a rapidly developing snow drought.

“If you look at most of the West, it’s at or above average, with regards to precipitation to date,” Eric Sproles, an associate professor of earth sciences at Montana State University, told ABC News. “But if you look at the the amount of water that’s stored in the snow pack is, it’s pretty bleak.”

Meteorological winter, which begins in the U.S. on December 1, kicked off with record warmth across much of the West. December 2025 was the warmest December on record for cities including Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Nine western states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming – recorded their warmest December on record. For the winter season to date, Colorado is currently experiencing its warmest winter since 1934, while Utah is experiencing its warmest winter on record, according to NOAA.

The snow drought is threatening water supplies

Drought on its own already stresses water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems. But when winter fails to deliver significant mountain snow, the resulting snow drought – a period of abnormally little snowpack for the time of year – can intensify those impacts, according to NOAA.

The snowpack typically acts as a natural water reservoir. However, without an adequate snowpack to slowly release water through the spring and summer snow melt, rivers run lower, soils dry out earlier, and drought conditions can deepen and linger.

Melting snow provides a slow release of the water into reservoirs and dams but also recharges ground water as well, Sproles said: “That slow, steady release is important. The snowpack is kind of like a savings account.”

In Utah, the snow water equivalent – meaning how much water is in the snowpack – is currently at only 55% of its median, which is the lowest snow water equivalent to date. Moreover, only a quarter of the state has seen a ground snow cover depth of at least 1 inch.

Colorado and Oregon are also reporting their lowest snow water equivalents to date, with Montana approaching its lowest snow water equivalent to date.

In much of the West, snowmelt provides a large percentage of the water used by communities, agriculture, and ecosystems; in some states, up to about 75 percent of the water supply can come from melting snow, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As such, the snow water equivalent is a vital measure of the region’s water resources.

According to NOAA, a persistent snow drought can trigger a cascade of hydrologic changes. Low snowpack and early snowmelt can affect vegetation, reduce surface and subsurface water storage and alter streamflow, all of which directly impact water management and planning across the West.

While soil moisture in not currently a concern, it could dry out over the next couple of months, according to Meyer.

“We’ve become critically reliant on soil moisture observations for drought monitoring and predictions,” Meyer said.

The reservoirs along the Colorado River are especially threatened, the experts said. Major reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin remain well below average, according to latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). As of early February, Lake Powell, in southern Utah and northern Arizona, was about 26 % full, while Lake Mead – the nation’s largest reservoir by volume, located in Arizona and Nevada – was about 34% full.

Total storage in the Colorado River system, which provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven western states, was roughly 37% of capacity, down from about 42% at the same time last year, according to the USBR, which has flagged 13 reservoirs, the majority located in the West, for having the lowest observed water storage levels for the current time period.

The Colorado River system also serves as a vital resource for 30 tribal nations, sustaining 5.5 million acres of farmland and agricultural communities throughout the West, while also supporting critical ecosystems and protecting endangered species, the USBR said.

Winter sports have been impacted by lack of snow

The snow drought is also impacting local economies that rely on winter sports, an industry that contributes $20 billion annually to the U.S. economy, according to The Climate Reality Project.

“The resort winter tourism is a huge economic backbone for many of these mountain resort communities,” Marcene Mitchell, senior vice president for climate change for the World Wildlife Fund, told ABC News. “And so as they lose their snowfall, they also lose these revenue.”

Vail Resorts, a Colorado-based company that owns and operates some of the largest ski resorts in North America, reported in January that skier visits to its North American resorts were down about 20% through Jan. 4, compared to the same period last year. The company issued the update as a mid-season report on skier visits and revenue, citing a lack of early-season snowfall as a major factor in the decline.

Season-to-date total lift revenue, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue, was down 1.8% from the same period last year, said the tourism company, which operates dozens of resorts across North America, including Vail Mountain and Breckenridge in Colorado and Park City Mountain in Utah.

“We experienced one of the worst early season snowfalls in the western U.S. in over 30 years, which limited our ability to open terrain and negatively impacted visitation and ancillary spending for both local and destination guests during the period,” Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz said in a statement.

Vail’s Tahoe-area resorts in California also had a slow start through mid-December, but holiday-period snowstorms allowed the company to open more terrain, Katz said.

February and March typically can bring significant amounts of snow to the region, and odds favor above-average precipitation for much of the region over the next few weeks, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, with persistent unusually warm conditions less likely. However, NOAA notes, snowfall in the coming months may not be able to make up for existing deficits.

Forecasters further caution that this pattern may not last for the rest of the month, with overall warmer and drier-than-average conditions still favored for the month as a whole.

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