On February 27, ICE released Daphy Michel — a 31-year-old Haitian asylum seeker with severe untreated mental illness and a significant language barrier — at a bus stop 30 miles from her home in Pittsburgh. Three days later, she was found dead of hypothermia at that same bus stop. She never figured out how to leave.

On June 13, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide.

Daphy's attorney described exactly what ICE knew when they dropped her there: she had mental health challenges, a language barrier, an educational barrier, and a psychiatric barrier. She had spent six months in jail after being arrested for screaming at imaginary people — a judge eventually dismissed the charges, finding he could not hold her for trial. ICE then arrested her and transported her 30 miles away and left her alone at a bus shelter in winter.

DHS responded by denying all responsibility and citing the very charges that had already been dismissed in court.

Daphy Michel is not alone. Nurul Shah Alam — a blind Rohingya refugee — was found dead in Buffalo five days after Border Patrol dropped him on a street corner without notifying his family. His death was also ruled a homicide. The Trump administration has now announced it will stop publishing data on deaths of people recently released from ICE detention.

They are hiding the numbers because they know what the numbers say.

Daphy deserved care, shelter, language access, and medical support. She deserved to live.

We're calling on the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to be held fully accountable for Daphy Michel's death — and for every preventable death that follows an ICE release.