Marie Angel Blaise was pronounced dead on Friday night at Broward Transition Center in Pompano Beach. John McCall/South Florida Sun Territory/Tribune News Service Closed subtitles
A woman from Haiti died after being detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Guardianship (ICE) by the agency announced Tuesday.
Marie Angel Blaise, 44, declared dead Friday night at the Broward Transition Center in Pompano Beach, Florida. Bing said her cause of death is under investigation.
D-FLA. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick spoke on the House floor Wednesday, suggesting that adequate medical care was not provided.
“Mary has been complaining about chest pain for several hours,” said Chefros McCormick, the only Haitian-American in Congress. "They gave her some medicine and told her to lie down. Unfortunately, Mary never woke up."
NPR has contacted ICE for more information. The agency said in a notice Tuesday that “no time during the detention” was the detainee “rejecting emerging care”.
"All people with ice custody receive medical care, dental and mental health checks and 24 hours of emergency care in every detention center," it said.
Congress requires ICE to disclose all reports of deaths during monitoring within 90 days. Meanwhile, Cherfilus-McCormick plans to visit the Pompano Beach facility and calls for a "full, independent investigation" into Blaise's death.
"Her loved ones deserve the answer," she said. "They should be held accountable - just like many immigrant families with missing and injured relatives."
Rep. Frederica Wilson, another South Florida Democrat, said in a tweet that she was "heartbroken" to learn about Blaise's death. She called on members of Congress to visit ice facilities to increase oversight over the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
“We also have to hear several stories of immigrants being abused in these black hole detention centers?” she wrote. "When will we get the answer?"
Blaise entered the U.S. “on an unknown date and place” without being admitted or parole, Ice said.
According to the agency, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) met her on February 12 at St. Croix International Airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands, trying to board a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the agency.
"On the same date, the CBP issued an expedited evacuation notice to Bryce, alleging that it was unacceptable as an immigrant and that there was no valid immigration visa," it said.
Two days later, the CBP transferred her to ICE custody in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The following week, she was taken to Louisiana, where she was detained for more than a month at the Ridgewood Correctional Center. On April 5, she was transferred to the detention center in Pompano Beach, Florida. She died there for nearly three weeks.
According to agency data, six other people have died on the ice since the start of the fiscal year 2025, with half of them occurring since January.
News of Blaise's death came as the Trump administration stepped up radical campaigns for raids, detention and deportation.
On Wednesday, ICE announced that 66,463 people had no legal status and deported 65,682 people were arrested in the first 100 days of Trump's tenure.
Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs of the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin told NPR Morning version More deportations are coming soon.
“What we are doing is the first hundred days of cultural changes, and we see success,” McLaughlin said. “But we are going to see those numbers increase over the next hundred days.”
Trump’s immigration crackdown not only shocked the immigrant communities, but also sparked huge protests, challenges from many courts, and a wider focus on the constitutional crisis.
NPR/PBS News/MARIST poll released this week found that only 44% of Americans agree with how Trump has handled immigration so far. But the partisan differences are clear: 87% of Republicans agree with his approach, while the Democrats only have 11%.