Haitian asylum seeker found dead days after ICE monitoring release in Pittsburgh

A Haitian asylum seeker was found unresponsive at a Pittsburgh bus shelter days after she was released from jail and placed under electronic monitoring by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, WTAE Pittsburgh confirmed Friday. 

Daphy Michel, 31, died March 2 after maintenance workers discovered her at a bus shelter, according to Port Authority Police.

Officers attempted life-saving measures, including CPR, an automated external defibrillator and Narcan before she was transported to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition. Doctors later told her family she suffered cardiac arrest. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner has not released an official cause of death.

Michel’s brother, Carlo Michel, who spoke to WTAE, said he learned of her death when a hospital contacted him asking if he recognized her name.

Michel had been held nearly six months in the Washington County Jail in Washington, Pennsylvania, on a $10,000 bond.

Court records show a neighbor reported in September that Michel was experiencing significant mental health episodes. Her preliminary hearing was postponed seven times while she awaited a mental health evaluation, according to the Washington County Public Defender’s Office.

On Feb. 26, a judge dismissed two misdemeanor charges of harassment and threats.

Carlo Michel said he expected his sister to be released shortly afterward.

“At the court, I saw my sister. I saw Daphy. She wasn’t having any problem,” he said through an interpreter in an interview with Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.

Instead, he received a call from a doctor on March 2 informing him that she had died.

ICE placed her in monitoring program

The Washington County Public Defender’s Office said Michel had an ICE detainer on her file, meaning immigration authorities requested notification before she was released from jail.

ICE confirmed Michel was processed Feb. 27 at its Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Pittsburgh and enrolled in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program.

The program allows individuals with pending immigration cases to remain outside detention while complying with supervision requirements, which can include electronic ankle monitors.

Michel was fitted with an ankle monitor.

Immigration attorney Joseph Murphy, who is assisting the family, said the device was likely installed through the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office on Jane Street in Pittsburgh.

“What confuses everybody is the in-between part,” Murphy said. “She was told the charges were dismissed and she would be released. Then four days later, the family gets a call that she’s dead.”

ICE said it received a tamper alert from Michel’s electronic monitoring device on March 3, indicating the strap had been removed. By that time, her body had already been taken to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Authorities have not explained where Michel went or what happened in the days between her release and when she was found at the bus shelter. She lived about an hour away from the ICE office where she was processed.

Immigration case was pending

Michel entered the United States through a legal port of entry in Brownsville, Texas, on Dec. 14, 2022 and was paroled into the country for humanitarian reasons, according to ICE.

After arriving in the U.S., she filed a request for political asylum.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review confirmed Michel had an immigration hearing scheduled in Florida on April 16.

Her brother said she came to the United States hoping to build a safer life.

“She came here looking for life,” he said.

Death adds to concerns over ICE detention

Michel’s death comes amid growing concerns over deaths connected to immigration detention and enforcement.

Earlier this month, Emmanuel Damas, a 56-year-old Haitian man, died in an immigration detention facility in Florence, Arizona, after a tooth infection, his family said, went untreated.

Damas was the third Haitian reported dead in ICE custody since April 2025.

Jean-Wilson Brutus, 41, died in December 2025 shortly after entering the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey. Marie Ange Blaise, 44, died in April 2025 at the Broward Transitional Center in Florida following allegations of inadequate medical care.

ICE recorded 32 deaths in custody in 2025 — the highest number in more than two decades.

For Michel’s family, many questions remain about what happened in the days before she was found unresponsive at the Pittsburgh bus shelter.

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