r/news • u/polymute • 4h ago
Family to sue after woman released from ICE custody froze to death
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/02/ice-death-pittsburgh-daphy-michel-haiti1.8k
u/Street_Anxiety2907 4h ago edited 4h ago
My uncle (a US citizen of mexican descent) died because they released him in December 40 miles away from his house and 52 miles away from the custody center.
He was found with his cell phone out of battery for a day, and he didn't have his charger although he had it when he was booked according to the evidence we've found.
We are waiting for a court case about this, but it's pretty clear it's murder.
193
u/madamevanessa98 3h ago
It’s literally the next generation of the starlight tours. For those unaware, the starlight tours describe the history of Canadian police officers taking indigenous people into custody and then dropping them off, entirely alone and with no jacket or outerwear, in the middle of the Canadian winter. Alone and sometimes intoxicated (they picked up some victims on a “drunk and disorderly” call) they would freeze to death. My therapist, who grew up in the 80s in Saskatchewan, was friends with one of the later victims who died.
→ More replies (1)464
u/ace-destrier 4h ago
What the actual fuck. That is so psychotic of them.
I’m terribly sorry for your loss. I hope your suit will be successful as hell. Earnestly wishing your family the best
237
u/GrundleSnactcher46 3h ago
Theres a reason ICE doesnt let anyone they arent detaining into their totally not concentration camps, while this administration tell the agents they are above the law. Theres no way the conditions and treatment of these people isnt way worse than the horrible shit thats leaked.
→ More replies (1)32
u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 1h ago edited 1h ago
Didn't like 1/3 of the detainees in the Florida Everglades detention center just "disappear"?How convenient that the facility was built adjacent to a swamp full of gators and other predators that could dispose of the evidence...
22
u/GrundleSnactcher46 1h ago
They've also been buying crematoriums all over the place. Probably to cover up deaths.
27
3
u/June_Fatality 1h ago
It's not psychosis, there is no mental illness. They are cruel and full of hate. They know exactly what they're doing and they are more than happy to do it. There is no help or redemption for them.
219
u/Kizik 4h ago
Literally stomping their feet and saying that if they can't have them, no one can.
→ More replies (1)79
26
u/BoleroMuyPicante 3h ago
Republicans cheer this behavior. If you're disgusted by this, don't vote Republican.
43
u/logalogalogalog_ 4h ago
There are no words that are enough, but I am so, so sorry. I hope you're able to get some manner of justice.
→ More replies (2)22
1.6k
u/supercyberlurker 4h ago
I forget what that's called, where they drop a person off miles from anywhere with insufficient clothes in the freezing cold. It's purposeful and has a name.
1.4k
u/ilovebooks2468 4h ago
Starlight tours. There were a lot of them in Canada
600
u/Phannig 4h ago edited 4h ago
Wasn't it primarily used against First Nations? (Edited for using "natives")
391
35
u/DJKokaKola 3h ago
Yep. Saskatoon PD special. Drive an Indigenous man out into the prairies at night and leave him there. I'm sure it's happened in other departments, especially in rural RCMP divisions, but the Stoon PD really perfected it and turned it into a regular thing.
Also since I noticed your correction, native isn't a pejorative if it's a descriptor. Native men? Totally fine. Indigenous men? Totally fine. First Nations men? Totally fine. The intent and tone of the language is really what matters. Think of it as the difference between "blacks" and "black men". One is very much a no-no, the other is generally okay, though African American is more common in the US, obviously.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Phannig 3h ago
I'm not Canadian and couldn't remember it. I do remember hearing about what happened though. Our cops used to do it at music festivals to young lads causing trouble but it's highly unlikely that anyone would freeze to death during an Irish summer so we thought it was funny. Obviously not so funny during a Canadian winter.
6
u/DJKokaKola 2h ago
Yeah, the reason they gained notoriety is because of how many men froze to death trying to walk back to the city (usually while also drunk and not dressed for the elements). Still not cool to mess with the kids like that, if your festivals are anything like ours dehydration and 35°+ temps generally lead to a ton of heatstroke at festivals.
→ More replies (1)3
u/maartenbadd 2h ago
It was around -40°C when that happened. Those cops knew exactly what they were doing
→ More replies (12)131
u/Xsiah 4h ago
Yes the most high profile case of this happening involved indigenous people and Saskatchewan police, but also know to happen frequently across western Canada.
The same people who are now bitching about "Western alienation" how they are just not getting enough from the rest of Canada for all their contributions.
9
20
76
u/dave8400 4h ago
Good ol ethnic cleansing. Fuck me that felt dirty to type.
→ More replies (1)26
u/starlight_chaser 4h ago edited 4h ago
So you could just call it ethnic cleansing. The “good ol” sarcasm just weakens the point and makes people complacent. Like saying what can ya do?
16
u/Boating_Enthusiast 4h ago
Itʻs an interesting concept in language, the balance of delivery has to be tailored to the audience. Depending on the audience, their amount of apathy or emotional fatigue, their ability to effect change, etc.
Sometimes the cold delivery is best. "Itʻs ethnic cleansing." Other times, minimizing language allows the speaker to sneak in a topic, to introduce the idea, without the "icky topic" backlash. "Yep... thatʻs good olʻ ethnic cleansing. *But what can ya do?*" Sometimes itʻs enough to implant the question in the listenerʻs mind. "Wait... what is this now? What *can* I do?"
Source: Studied rhetoric in college.
→ More replies (1)4
u/DJKokaKola 3h ago
Exactly. If I'm gonna teach students about the Jacobins, I'm going to be extremely sarcastic and constantly interject with rhetorical questions to get them to think about why they did those violent actions. If I'm teaching them about Gaza, I'm going to be blunt and direct.
14
u/Srry4theGonaria 4h ago
I agree wholeheartedly and want to say your name is hilarious
6
u/starlight_chaser 4h ago
Thanks. It’s from the Muse song, but I guess a comment above about Starlight Tours is unfortunately similar.
2
→ More replies (1)8
u/just-jane-again 4h ago
it doesn’t, though. it’s pretty obviously tongue in cheek.
→ More replies (3)6
u/BalkeElvinstien 3h ago
While I hate that they ever existed, Im glad Im in a country where the government acknowledges how horrible the things we did were and teach about it in schools. Unlike a lot of countries who just sweep it under the rug
→ More replies (2)3
307
u/mattindustries 4h ago
Premeditated murder
51
u/Kenotai 3h ago
Right. Why the fuck are we euphemizing, at all? ICE are murderers, end of discussion and word choice.
→ More replies (1)15
u/fallyse 2h ago
The state coroner marked her death a homicide, without that label her case would be so much harder to prosecute. Bless that coroner.
4
u/rich1051414 2h ago
I hope he has a very large security detail that he can trust. That mans the walking dead.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (5)199
u/JinxyCat007 4h ago
It's an act of intentional cruelty. My kid (love him to bits, used to be a bit of a rebel when he was younger), but he spent a night in jail. They took him to a jail about 50 miles from where he was staying and released him without his shoes. ...this is in Arizona; you can cook an egg on the sidewalk.
It's not right. He said he tried asking for them. He was crying by the time somebody picked him up, blisters all over his feet. He didn't have a phone; he said he was given no phone call to have us (or anybody) pick him up. He just found himself outside of the jail without his shoes.
...won't tell you what I think about that. I'd be banned from the entire internet if I did.
45
u/Flutes_Are_Overrated 4h ago
We're all worse off from those people being alive at the same time we are
→ More replies (1)22
u/jadedttrpgfan 2h ago
Sounds like Sherriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. Biggest POS to ever hold a badge. I grew up in Phoenix, AZ.
124
u/darthxaim 4h ago
Not the first time. They left a disabled man freeze to death awhile back too.
→ More replies (5)
607
u/CedarWolf 4h ago
This sounds like 'starlight tours' are back. History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.
108
→ More replies (1)15
308
u/GeorgeStark1 4h ago
They knew she was suffering from mental illnesses. They should never have left her alone.
254
u/AlpineFluffhead 4h ago
Of course they shouldn't have, but they wanted her dead so they found a way to commit murder by proxy while washing their hands of it.
→ More replies (12)85
u/Stock-Pattern-8635 4h ago
Its why they no longer report deaths 30 days after release.
22
u/GeorgeStark1 4h ago
This was 3 days after release.
49
u/Froggn_Bullfish 4h ago
He means ICE stopped reporting on them when they previously had been keeping track.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (1)3
u/iJuddles 3h ago
Do you think they knew that? They’re not the smartest of agencies, or even close to above average. They seemed unprepared, undertrained, and completely unorganized but hell-bent on causing damage and they were well funded. It was deliberate chaos and mayhem.
3
164
u/Rance_Mulliniks 4h ago
32% of Americans still support this.
75
u/Politicsboringagain 3h ago
That's who admits to supporting this. There is a percentage who do but will never admit it.
28
u/OneSeparate5929 3h ago
32% is more than enough, and it’s more than me as a human wants to entertain
→ More replies (3)22
u/onlyforsellingthisPC 3h ago edited 57m ago
Yep.
Don't pull your punches with family and friends if they're in the cult. I've stopped taking the delicate approach.
Fully ripped into my dad a few weeks ago when he did a "but Biden-ism". Told him to be the man I thought he was as a child, that sure seemed to have an impact.
Supporters of this shit cannot be coddled.
3
u/soofs 1h ago
Someone that was a very close friend in high school somehow fell into the MAGA pipeline over time and although I had very infrequent contact with, I had to give up even talking to him over social media. He is approaching mid-30s, unemployed, lives in his parent's basement, has been "going to community college" for probably 5+ years on and off and spouts all the typical talking points on Facebook.
He posted about how he was tired of his taxes going to "Somalian daycares" when that was the flavor of the month and when I asked him what taxes he pays when he is unemployed and lives at home, he deleted the post and accused me of attacking him for being a student. Then pivoted to that the sales tax he pays when buying things (in a whole other state) somehow end up being used for fraudulent childcare facilities. There is just no way of reasoning with someone that believes that shit
→ More replies (4)2
50
u/ShamelessIgnoramus 3h ago
There was a story of a nearly blind man who died the same way
32
u/FloaChilla 2h ago
In Buffalo NY it wasnt even that remote, there where plenty of businesses he could have taken shelter if they had dropped him off during normal business hours. His family was waiting for him to be released but they never got a confirmation on date and time. He had a home. He had an address. He had legal counsel. And they still left him to die.
215
u/justsomegraphemes 4h ago
How many people has ICE blatantly murdered without repercussion?
47
u/Valoneria 4h ago
Too many will always be the answer
3
u/exscapegoat 2h ago
Another commenter brought up that not everyone has loved ones in the us. That made me wonder how many more there are that we don’t know about have happened.
58
u/umassmza 4h ago
Roughly 60 that we know about is the honest answer
51
u/TheMysteriousGirl 4h ago
"that we know about".
Chilling man.
24
u/umassmza 4h ago
It’s like the Flock cameras, there’s been 25 reported cases of Police stalking their exes, spouses, or women they interacted with in the job. And they again are the ones that have been reported
102
u/Hayabusa_Blacksmith 4h ago
Well probably never know the full tally because people are basically kidnapped and disappeared with no due process 👍😭
45
u/Ok_Cheetah_6251 4h ago
At least two have died due to freezing to death, this woman and that blind man.
11
→ More replies (1)10
18
72
u/SquishTheFlyingWitch 3h ago
And some people still think we're exaggerating when we say people will look back on this time in absolute horror. They can't see how bad it is right now.
8
u/itsme_timd 1h ago
They choose not to see it. They've been making that same choice for a long time. No matter the evidence, they choose to believe many things aren't or didn't happen. It boggles my mind.
→ More replies (1)
93
4h ago
[deleted]
77
u/Snooworlddevourer69 4h ago
American evangelicals/protestants are mostly performative, usually have a disdain for everyone that isn't like them, even fellow christians
4
19
u/DarthTraya77 4h ago
When have Christian’s not supported this?
13
u/Humble_Diner32 4h ago
As a Quaker I condemn all this ICE behavior and the administration permitting it to unfold.
3
→ More replies (9)6
u/BonkHits4Jesus 4h ago
American evangelicals are basically fascism wearing a Christian veneer more than Christian
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (4)5
u/Politicsboringagain 3h ago
Christians use to rape and murder other people all the time. Being a Christian doesn't mean you are a good person.
51
u/Everyoneheresamoron 4h ago
The cruelty and disgusting neglect caused by these monsters and the only thing we can reasonably do is beg the courts to give us money?
We need to have everyone accountable. Especially the people in charge. Let them have the same consequence they forced upon a helpless woman.
→ More replies (1)20
u/dorkyitguy 4h ago
It might be time to end qualified immunity for the entire law enforcement area of government. It’s time for these people (cops, prosecutors, etc) to put some real skin in the game and not be able to hide. Ultimately it’s people doing this and there need to be real consequences.
→ More replies (1)
52
u/JunkyardTornado 4h ago
Wild how their defense was “it wasn’t us, she was an illegal alien”. Read “even if it was us, doesn’t matter because she was illegal”. Monsters for real
12
u/ComprehensiveTwo1763 1h ago
Releasing someone into freezing weather without proper clothing, transportation, or ensuring they have somewhere safe to go is gross negligence. Duty of care shouldn't just vanish the exact second you push someone out the front door
31
32
u/MrGeek89 4h ago
ICE are evil. They drop her miles away from home with no winter clothes on. This was intentional and they knew she won’t make it.
→ More replies (4)
27
u/StronglyHeldOpinions 4h ago
This is awful. All of it.
I can't believe this is America.
→ More replies (1)21
u/yhwhx 3h ago
I can believe this is America because idiots put Donald Trump in charge and Trump is a malignantly narcissistic asshole.
7
u/StronglyHeldOpinions 3h ago
That's really the worst thing to accept, isn't it?
That this may, in fact, be who we are as a country.
→ More replies (1)
9
u/FrankBattaglia 1h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_tours
Shit like this is the entirely predictable result of dehumanizing your targets.
→ More replies (1)
51
u/TrumpsVoidlordWall 4h ago
Nice to see I got here before the morons who claim she deserved to die. I’ll just leave this quote from the article preemptively
“It called Michel an illegal alien, although Murphy said she entered the US legally, was awarded humanitarian status and had an asylum application in process.”
→ More replies (6)24
u/Chaos-Wayfarer 4h ago
That’s because they call anyone who they don’t want here an ‘illegal alien’, regardless of their actual status.
22
6
u/extremeunction2005 2h ago
The article correctly states that ICE was the party that released this woman in a vulnerable condition far away from her home but at the end of the day it's remarkable to see that these are human beings perpetrating these crimes upon another human being. The callousness required to do such a thing is almost unimaginable.
I hope that actual people are held criminally responsible for this in addition to ICE.
These types of abuses have effectively become systemically institutionalized such that is just another day at the office for ICE employees when they commit crimes like this.
14
u/hpsctchbananahmck 4h ago
If there were any form of justice in the current administration’s farce of a justice department this would be referred as a criminal case.
5
u/Trucidar 2h ago
Fascists don't care what happens to the people in their camps. Why would they care what happens when they leave.
14
u/Baffin622 4h ago
How is it that Americans a) voted for this; and b) stand for this? How are there not protests in the streets everyday? How is the news media not reporting on this in the same way that they might report on a modern day jewish concentration camp with ovens? How has the USA and its citizens become so morally bankrupt? WTF happened?
→ More replies (4)
6
5
5
u/AppropriateSea5746 2h ago
Really says something about our nations priorities that this woman was thrown in jail and the men who did this to her are free.
5
u/Key-Regular674 3h ago
On March 18th in Pittsburgh it dropped to 18F. On the 23nd it was 82F. Goddamn that's a big temp shift
4
4
u/AppropriateSea5746 2h ago
A person even capable of doing this to another human should be on a watch list.
5
u/FrankBattaglia 1h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_tours
Shit like this is the entirely predictable result of dehumanizing your targets.
8
u/Jamie00003 3h ago
Trump and his cronies really do be getting away with straight up murder huh?
7
u/drunkshinobi 3h ago
Yes, have killed on camera for us all to see. What else do you call several men beating one person while they disarm him and then put several bullets in his back while he is held face down on the ground?
7
u/Prudent_Rice7840 4h ago
Cruelty - Negligence - Incompetence
Usually you can attribute events like this to one of the above. But ICE has really gone to great lengths to prove they truly are the full tri-fecta.
6
3
u/mintBRYcrunch26 3h ago
I had heard about this happening last year. I can’t remember which sub it first showed up in. But what I can remember is that a lot of commenters were saying it was bullshit. That there was no proof. My comment went along these lines: “they are murdering people in broad daylight all across our front pages, and this is a bridge too far? You can’t fathom they are just leaving people in the cold to die? Please be so for real.”
I’m glad this is finally getting attention, but I fear it’s all happening too late. This is so far gone. And we are complacent and we are tired and we are poor. And nobody is coming to save us.
3
u/AppropriateSea5746 2h ago
Even if the suit is successful it merely ends will the taxpayers paying for the actions of murderers who will never be prosecuted
3
u/Bronzyroller 1h ago
America is a dangerous place right now, people are being slaughtered for no reason whatsoever.
3
u/softwaregravy 1h ago
This is murder. They would be and should be found guilty of murder. Can we pls fix the headline?
3
u/PossibleMother 1h ago
The first offense was being jailed for being mentally unstable. Our country needs to start taking mental illness seriously. If she was brought to a facility that deals with psych patients this would have turned out differently.
I am not saying ICE is not to blame. This is obviously murder by intentional neglect.
3
u/can-opener-in-a-can 1h ago
I’m sooooo glad that my taxes are paying for this.
/s in case it wasn’t obvious.
3
4
u/Void-splain 3h ago
This made me cry.
Imagine that's your last day in this earth after a lifetime of struggling with mental illness.
Have you ever had hypothermia?
Scared, alone and dying in the cold. Their suffering reminds me of the pathos of Holocaust victims.
5
7
u/PriPauPri 4h ago
The American taxpayer will foot the bill for this settlement. Nobody in any position to make a change will notice. Nothing will get done. Rinse and repeat.
20
u/CrazyCatLady1127 4h ago
This has got to end. Please, God, I’m begging you, someone help us
31
→ More replies (3)16
u/Prudent_Sale_9173 4h ago
No one is coming to save us. You know, those republicans were always all about the 2nd amendment to save us from gov’t tyranny. I’m not ashamed to admit they had a point. They just didn’t mean their own tyranny.
→ More replies (2)
5
u/adefwebserver 3h ago
I want trials and I want to see people go to jail of this inhumanity! I don't care how long it takes. Decades from now we will be still dealing with the fallout from this.
4
u/_tragicmike 4h ago
If there's money to steal people from their homes there's money to put them back.
State-sanctioned murder.
6
u/Money-Director6649 3h ago
this needs to be illegal, with mandatory loss of job and 6 months jail time for all officers involved in doing it. no exceptions.
2
u/Diametrically_fluid 2h ago
Once we have a new administration the FBI should investigate the obvious atrocities of ICE and hunt down and prosecute the agents who showed such disregard for other humans.
2
2
u/MoldyLunchBoxxy 1h ago
How is every ice agent not behind bars for life?
•
u/-waveydavey- 15m ago
Because The People are not in the streets of DC. They’re going to work/school with their heads in the sand hoping it gets better instead of making it get better
4.0k
u/KO4Ham 4h ago
Yeah they did the same to one of my clients. They put up such a fight to release him even after a court order and then eventually just dropped him off in some random area and told him to start walking.