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Name: Daphy Michel

Age: 31

Date: March 2, 2026

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Agent: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Cause of Death: Homocide by hypothermia

On March 2, 2026, Daphy Michel, a 31 year old Haitian asylum seeker, was found unresponsive at a bus stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Despite her known mental health condition, ICE released her far from home, leaving her exposed to subfreezing temperatures for days while wearing light clothing in the dead of winter. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide by hypothermia, concluding that it resulted from the actions of another individual given the circumstances.

Michel was arrested in September 2025 following a neighbor's call to police about a mental health breakdown, during which she appeared to be shouting at imaginary people. For nearly six months, she sat in the Washington County Jail facing misdemeanor charges until they where dismissed by a judge in February the following year. Rather than being released to her family, Michel was taken into custody on February 27 by ICE and transported to their Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Pittsburgh. There, she was enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program and fitted with an electronic ankle monitor before being released that same day. She was dropped off at a bus stop in East Pittsburgh, 20 miles away from her home in Charleroi, a borough south of Pittsburgh in Washington County. Video obtained from Pittsburgh Regional Transit show Michel sitting at the same bus stop for days until March 2, when a maintenance worker, working nearby, found her laying on the floor unresponsive. She was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Michel entered the U.S. through the southern border in 2022 and received humanitarian parole based on urgent need. She died just two weeks before her scheduled immigration hearing. At the time of her death, she was a vulnerable adult with untreated severe mental health challenges and a significant language barrier. This incident parallels the death of another undocumented immigrant dropped off far from home in freezing weather a week earlier. Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee who was nearly blind and died of hypothermia after Border Patrol agents left him on a Buffalo, New York, street on the night of February 19, 2026.

Michel should never have been arrested and jailed for a mental health crisis. Instead of receiving the support she so desperately needed, she was subjected to six months of incarceration, time that only deepened her suffering. The justice system saw a woman in crisis and responded with handcuffs. The immigration system saw the same vulnerable woman and released her into a world she could not navigate, fully aware of her fragile condition. This callous disregard for someone with severe mental health challenges reflects a broader pattern of how this country treats its Black immigrants. Michel's death was not inevitable, it was a tragedy that could have been avoided with even a shred of humanity.

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