Hours before Ohio college student and athlete Pierre Damas Bel took his own life Monday morning, he called his father for help.
It was around 8 a.m., and he was sitting inside his car on the side of Interstate 70, struggling mentally and emotionally with the shame of being forced to wear an ankle monitor by immigration officials. Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian student at Wright State University, said he had been bullied at school and felt “humiliated” by the device.
“I told him to come home so we can talk,” Bel’s father said in an emailed statement. “Around 11 the police showed at my door to report that my son threw himself under a truck.”
Bel stepped into oncoming traffic and died from his injuries, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. His family blamed the humiliation brought on by the ankle monitor he had been wearing since July.
Carl Ruby, a local pastor and immigration advocate, said in a statement that Bel’s family wanted people to know it was a suicide related to immigration policies.
Bel arrived in the U.S. in 2024 and applied for admission into the country using the now-defunct CBP One app, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an emailed statement. He was released into the country and settled in Springfield with his parents and two brothers.
Bel excelled in academics and athletics, becoming an honor roll student at Springfield High School and joining JROTC. He was recruited to play soccer at Wittenberg University and hoped to attend medical school after college, immigration advocates said.
In May, the Springfield City School District featured Bel in a Facebook post highlighting recipients of a local scholarship that offered $2,500 to each student. Bel wore a blue suit and a black bow tie as he accepted his award, with a big smile on his face.
The future seemed bright.
Things began to change July 29, when ICE placed him in an “alternatives to detention program” with an ankle monitor while he continued his immigration proceedings.
He documented the experience on social media, writing July 30 that he came to the country to study, not “commit a crime or hurt anyone.”
“Yet now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience,” he wrote.
Bel was one of the roughly 300,000 Haitian nationals living in the U.S. who lost their temporary protected status, or TPS, at the end of July following a Supreme Court decision. The policy change triggered a wave of fear and confusion in Springfield, where 12,000 Haitians live.
ICE said it does not comment on the cause of death while an investigation is pending.
“We will not speculate about unverified claims regarding other individuals,” it said in an emailed statement.
According to the Wittenberg University men’s soccer team, Bel was no longer able to play for the team after he lost TPS. He transferred to nearby Wright State University and immediately faced taunts and bullying from students, his family said.
“We do not want to politicize this, but this is a political problem, and the only solution is a political solution,” Ruby told reporters Tuesday.
“The only way that this will never be correct is if Republican elected officials join us in demanding better policy,” he said.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has criticized the Trump administration’s harsh immigration enforcement and its impact on Ohio residents.
On Tuesday, he called Bel’s suicide a “horrible tragedy” that never should have happened.
“I think we have to ask ourselves: Is this really good? Is it what we want done to people like this being picked up and facing deportation? Do we want that being done in our name?” he told reporters.
Springfield, a small city in southwestern Ohio, became the center of salacious and unfounded rumors about the Haitian community during the 2024 presidential election.
In August, ICE began alerting Haitians to appear in person at check-ins, where they were given ankle monitors to track their whereabouts until immigration judges can decide whether they may have legitimate reasons to remain in the country, such as asylum claims.
Ankle monitors are usually issued because of a lack of detention space for more than 300,000 Haitians who lost TPS after the Supreme Court decision in June, a senior Department of Homeland Security official has said.
Some Springfield residents saw the arrival of Haitian nationals as a driving force behind the city’s economic renaissance. Others complained that Springfield was not prepared to welcome so many immigrants, who contributed to long waits at clinics and were driving up rental prices. Despite the unwanted attention, many Haitian residents thrived in their adopted home, taking jobs in manufacturing, buying homes and opening businesses.
Occasionally tensions boiled over. White supremacist groups and alt-right influencers have clashed with local immigration advocates and faith leaders who sought to protect the Haitian community.
Viles Dorsainvil, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Support Center, said the Bel family is one of several hundred who have poured into the center seeking legal help and guidance. He estimates 34 people have been detained since TPS ended.
Bel’s is believed to be the first suicide in Springfield related to immigration enforcement, he said.
“I know many folks are depressed right now,” Dorsainvil said. “I never had in my mind that it would have gotten to that point.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in emotional distress, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For additional resources, visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
