Death of Another Asylum Seeker Ruled Homicide After ICE Abandoned Her - The Tuesday AM Quickie 6/16/26

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ON THE SHOW TODAY

6/16: Sam and Emma are in the studio today. Their guests are Ed Zitron, publisher of the Where’s Your Ed At newsletter and host of the Better Offline podcast; and Tyler Vasseur, shop steward with the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 9 in Minnesota and a member of the coordinating committee of Build a Fighting NALC.

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Today you’ll read about the Russian destruction of a 1,000-year-old monastery in Ukraine, Trump’s investigation of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the vice bootlicker’s pledge that the US will “help” Iran get rid of its highly enriched uranium. I’m sure they’re very grateful.

THE BIG NEWS

Death of Another Asylum Seeker Ruled Homicide After ICE Abandoned Her Far From Home In Freezing Temperatures 

31-year-old Haitian national Daphy Michel was found dead at a Pittsburgh bus shelter in early March, shortly after Immigration and Customs Enforcement thugs arrested her in Washington County, Pennsylvania, slapped an ankle monitor on her, drove her 25 miles away, and left her outside in the freezing cold, the Associated Press reported. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death from hypothermia a homicide, meaning that it “was caused by the actions of another individual.” Her family is expected to sue ICE. 

Michel suffered from severe mental health issues and her ordeal began last summer when cops arrested her for yelling at imaginary people. After spending six months in Washington County Jail, a magistrate ruled that yelling at imaginary people wasn’t enough for him to hold Michel for trial. But it was more than enough for ICE to decide she should die. Agents showed up, arrested her, drove her far to Pittsburgh, and dumped her outside, “where she sat at a bus shelter for days in winter” without warm clothing. Michel had been in the US since 2022 and had been granted humanitarian parole based on urgent humanitarian need. She had a hearing scheduled for two weeks after she died. 

The pointless, unnecessary brutality echoes how immigration agents treated Nurul Amin Shah, a 56-year-old visually impaired Rohingya refugee from Myanmar at around the same time as Michel. Shah died on Feb. 24, days after border patrol agents abandoned him at a Tim Hortons in Buffalo, New York. The agents did not bother to notify his family or attorney. Like Michel, Shah froze to death. The Erie County medical examiner’s office ruled it a homicide. 

MORE STORIES TO WATCH

Russia Bombs 1,000-Year-Old Ukrainian Monastery, Targets Aid Workers 

Putin’s military launched the worst attack on Ukraine in two weeks, bombing the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site built in 1051, and killing nine people across the country, the Guardian and Reuters reported. The cathedral is one of Ukraine’s most significant cultural sites; France’s foreign minister said bombing it was akin to bombing Notre Dame in Paris. President ⁠Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “one of Russia’s most serious crimes ​against Christian culture to date” and urged G7 leaders meeting today to pressure Russia to stop. “It is very important that there be a response from the G7 countries, which are now gathering for their summit – and that this response be decisive and substantive: more pressure on the aggressor and more support for Ukraine’s air defence, especially anti-ballistic capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. Russia also bombed the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studios in Kyiv, the nation’s largest film archive and home to an historic costume collection.