A Haitian man came to Pennsylvania under Temporary Protected Status, working to build a life in Washington County while his sister reportedly sought a similar sliver of the American dream. But that dream collapsed after she was found dead days after her release from ICE detention.
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Back in September, Daphy Michel— who came to the U.S. to seek asylum from Haiti— was experiencing significant mental health episodes, according to a neighbor, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 reported. Michel, 31, faced two misdemeanor charges of harassment and threats, and had spent nearly six months in the Washington County Jail in Washington, Pennsylvania, on a $10,000 bond.
Her preliminary hearing was postponed seven times while she awaited a mental health evaluation, according to the Washington County Public Defender’s Office. Her charges were ultimately dismissed on Feb. 26. However, the Washington County Public Defender’s Office said ICE requested notification before she was released from jail due to an immigration detainer on her file, according to The Haitian Times.
Michel was processed Feb. 27 at the Pittsburgh Enforcement and Removal Operations office and enrolled in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program, ICE reportedly confirmed. The program allows individuals with pending immigration cases to remain outside detention while complying with supervision requirements, including electronic ankle monitors, which Michel was fitted for.
Her brother, identified by Action News 4 as Carlo Michel, was anticipating her release. “What confuses everybody is the in-between part,” immigration attorney Joseph Murphy told The Haitian Times. “She was told the charges were dismissed, and she would be released.”
Four days later, the unthinkable occurred.
Pittsburgh maintenance workers discovered Michel, not breathing and with no pulse, at a bus shelter across East Carson Street near the Smithfield St. Bridge shortly after 10 a.m. on March 2, according to Port Authority Police.
Officers attempted life-saving measures including Narcan, an automated external defibrillator and CPR, before she was transported to UPMC Hospital in critical condition. Doctors later told her family she suffered cardiac arrest, but Murphy said it’s, “The in-between part is the part that confuses everybody.”
A UPMC Presbyterian Hospital doctor called Michel’s brother Carlo to ask if he knew of anyone with his sister’s name four days after her charges were dismissed. “I replied them back, to let them know that it’s my sister,” Carlo confirmed. He was then told by an interpreter that his sister had died.
ICE confirmed the day after Michel’s death on March 3, the agency received an alert from her ankle monitor, indicating it had been removed. But by that point, her body was already awaiting autopsy in the custody of the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Michel was scheduled to appear before a judge in Florida on April 16 for her immigration hearing in an effort to secure legal status in the U.S., the Executive Office for Immigration Review confirmed.
“We were looking for a better way, a better health for her. These country really respect the law, and they respect people, and she came here, looking for life. That is the reason she came here,” Carlo said. “I need the justice for my sister.”
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