Marie Ange Blaise had been detained since Feb. 12, when she was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Henry E. Rohlsen International Airport in Saint Croix while trying to board a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, according to ICE.

Croix. Trump Mass Deportations ICE Photo by: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. By: Scripps News Group Posted 8:08 AM, Apr 30, 2025 and last updated 5 minutes ago

A 44-year-old woman from Haiti died in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Florida last Friday, the agency said.

The cause of her death is still under investigation.

Marie Ange Blaise had been detained since Feb. 12, when she was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Henry E. Rohlsen International Airport in Saint Croix while trying to board a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, according to ICE.

She was then taken to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Miami’s staging facility in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Feb. 14, according to ICE.

A week later, Blaise was transferred to Richwood Correctional Center in Oakdale, Louisiana.

ICE said she was later transferred to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, on April 5, where she later died.

It’s unclear why Blaise was transferred to various facilities.

According to ICE’s online records, this is the fourth person to die in custody since January.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
    38·
    16 hours ago

    It’s unclear why Blaise was transferred to various facilities.

    It’s for the chaos, so she can’t be found and let out.

    • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.catEnglish
      32·
      16 hours ago

      It could also be a method of punishment. Back in the before times in the US prison system, this was known as “diesel therapy.” Spending hours or days in a metal transport van to some new facility, shackled up, with no water, no bathroom, inconsistent food, no sleep if you’re going overnight, having all your possessions and people you interact with disrupted or removed, will absolutely fucking wear you down. They used it as a means of punishment for people they wanted to punish for whatever reason.

      In the Gulag, there was a similar but much worse thing called “The Pendulum” which happened more or less by accident but was far more punitive: Being stuck in the transport system which meant you got no food at all sometimes for a very long time. Presumably, that kind of idea is on ICE’s list if they have not arrived at it already.