A 44-year-old Haitian woman who died while detained at a federal immigration facility in Deerfield Beach earlier this year died from cardiovascular disease, according to a newly released autopsy report.
Marie Ange Blaise’s death at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Broward Transitional Center on April 25 prompted a visit to the facility by U.S. Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Frederica Wilson in order to learn more about what happened to her.
“Marie Blaise should be alive today. I will not stop until her loved ones get the justice they deserve, and all those in ICE custody are treated with basic dignity,” Cherfilus-McCormick told reporters in May after visiting the facility, which she said had “egregious issues,” including “detainees sleeping on the floor to the fact that a single doctor was on call ‘caring’ for hundreds of individuals.”
Blaise’s cause of death was listed as atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, and the manner of death was listed as natural in an autopsy report signed July 24.
She was transferred to the Deerfield Beach facility on April 5. Two weeks later, she collapsed on the ground and became unresponsive while in a room with three other detainees and was pronounced dead after efforts to resuscitate her, according to Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office records released Tuesday.
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Blaise’s son told a medical examiner’s office investigator that he last talked to his mother earlier on the day she died. She complained of chest and abdominal pains “and when she asked the detention staff to see a physician, they refused her,” according to the investigation report.
Another detainee who was friends with Blaise had reported earlier that day that Blaise was complaining about chest pains and “when told she should go to medical, she refused,” the report said.
“ICE remains committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments,” the agency said in a news release a few days after Blaise’s death. “Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay. All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health screening and 24-hour emergency care at each detention facility. At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care.”
Blaise, who had a history of hypertension, chronic kidney disease and anxiety, took one of her two medications minutes before she became unresponsive, according to the medical examiner’s investigation report. She went from her room after taking the medication into another room where the other detainees were, and they noticed she “looked different” and “seemed off” before she suddenly collapsed and became unresponsive. One of the other detainees pressed an alert button in the room to have detention officers and medical staff respond.
They tried to revive her with an automated external defibrillator, and she was pronounced dead shortly after 9 p.m. after Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue arrived, the report said.
Blaise came to the Deerfield Beach facility months after U.S. Customs and Border Protection first detained her.
She tried to board a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Saint Croix, U.S Virgin Islands, on Feb. 12, and Border Protection issued an expedited removal order, “charging inadmissibility as an immigrant without a valid immigrant visa,” ICE said in a news release.
Blaise was transferred to an ICE facility in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a few days later, then to a facility in Oakdale, Louisiana, on Feb. 21 before again being transferred to the Deerfield Beach facility on April 5.
An ICE detainee death report noted Blaise’s medical issues throughout the time she was detained, from her intake screening on Feb. 21 that showed high blood pressure to continued elevated blood pressure levels on multiple dates into mid-April. The last date noted in the report before Blaise’s death was April 15, when a provider evaluated Blaise and ordered a specific diet for those with kidney issues, a diuretic for her elevated blood pressure and repeat labs in 30 days.
The report said on April 15 Blaise was not complying with blood pressure medication and had previously refused medication nine times in March while detained at the Louisiana facility.
In Fiscal Year 2025, at least 13 people, including Blaise, have died while detained in ICE custody, according to a public database maintained by the agency.
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