Migrant Woman Dies in ICE Custody in Florida, Sparking Questions and Concern

There has been a dramatic event that traced its origin in South Florida, as seen through the death of a 44-year-old Haitian woman in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. She was named Marie Ange Blaise, and this is the fourth case of its nature in ICE custody this year.

The real cause of her death remains to be ascertained as the authorities themselves have released a news already that an inquiry has just been initiated. But the circumstances of death of Blaise and the series of transfers she suffered in detention – have placed the immigrant rights campaigners and the wider public in turmoil.

Blaise’s ordeal started back in February when she tried boarding a flight from the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Saint Croix to Charlotte, North Carolina. It is at the Henry E. Rohlsen International Airport that Blaise was detained by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). ICE reports that Blaise did not legally enter the U.S. jurisdiction and therefore was arrested on February 12.

There, she was shipped on a series of between-center transfers something that has been controversial. She was moved on February 14, two days following her arrest, to the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Miami staging site in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was shipped again, a week later to Richwood Correctional Center in Oakdale, Louisiana. Then, on April 5th, she was transferred to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida. Here in Florida’s facility, she unfortunately died last Friday.

Why her repeated transfers are unexplainable has not been publicly disclosed by ICE. The recurrence and spatial distance of the explanations – from Puerto Rico to Louisiana and now to Florida have questioned the agency’s handling of detainees, particularly those with tenuous cases.

ICE has continued to maintain that it is still dedicated to offering a “safe, secure, and humane environment” to all individuals in its custody. In an official statement, the agency explained, “Comprehensive medical care is offered from the time people arrive and throughout the entire course of their stay.” ICE also reiterated that all detainees are offered medical, dental, and mental health screenings and are assured access to 24-hour emergency care.

But this reassurance does nothing to reassure those grieving Blaise’s premature death or those wondering whether institutional loopholes in the system of immigration detainees are leading to such tragedies. Four fatalities in ICE custody in a few months’ time is cause for concern. It does not simply call into question individual cases, but also those wider procedures, oversight, and standards of care within these detention facilities.

Migrant rights advocates have been criticizing the ICE system of detention for a while now as having second-tier health care, extended detentions, and moving people from one far-flung center to another too many times far from court-appointed lawyers or family members. Blaise’s experience, to date still pending, navigates several of these.

Who was Marie Ange Blaise? What led her to attempt that fatal act at Charlotte? What type of medical treatment was she undergoing at the time of her arrest? These are just a few of numerous questions still yet unasked and ones the public has a right to have answered.

Aside from the official terminology, the human element of this tale cannot be denied. Blaise was not a case number or a detainee. She was a woman with dreams, perhaps for something better, and her life was brutally ended prematurely outside home, not by her friends and family, but in the cold walls of a detention center.

Her death also illustrates the isolation of migrants and women in particular in detention. It being necessary to cope with an unfriendly legal system, with no fluent English and often no representation, and with being shifted from location to location, can make them reeling from loneliness. When disease strikes under these circumstances, the scope for neglect is vast.

This event follows a time when U.S. border policy and enforcement practices are still controversial. As political pressure to comply with border law increases, many worry that humanitarian principles within the detention system are in the rearview mirror. And despite ICE still claiming medical care is available and accessible, incidents such as Blaise’s leave many wondering.

Transparency and accountability are called for following such a tragedy. A thorough and unbiased inquiry into Blaise’s death is not just the right thing to do – it is necessary. The public, and immigrant communities at large, need to be able to know that such tragedies are being met with and that good steps are being taken so that they do not recur in the future.

While immigration remains a flagship policy in America’s social and political life, cases like Marie Ange Blaise’s caution us to tackle it legally sound and humanely. Every soul in jail is entitled to dignity, appropriate care, and protection from mistreatment. When it does not occur, it is not one individual who loses out – it is a setback to the values that we say we hold dearly as a country.

Marie Ange Blaise’s tale is now probably part of some tragic statistic, but it is also a reminder of the cost in human lives of immigration enforcement. Let us hope that it is so, at least, for a call for greater oversight, better care, and a renewed focus on humane treatment of those who seek a place in our society.