A 20-year-old Haitian immigrant died in Springfield, Ohio, in what his family believes was a suicide following months of distress over losing his deportation protections and being fitted with an ICE ankle monitor.
Pierre Damas Bel had pulled his vehicle onto the shoulder before 8:45 a.m. and walked into westbound traffic, where the Ohio State Highway Patrol said he was hit by a tractor-trailer and pronounced dead at the scene, reported the Washington Post.
Bel was among an estimated 350,000 Haitians who recently lost temporary protected status after the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump's administration to proceed with ending it. He had a pending asylum claim and an October court hearing, but was summoned to an ICE office and fitted with an electronic monitor used to track immigrants facing removal.
"He felt like he was treated like an animal," his father, Pierres Ronal Bel, said in a handwritten statement. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The administration has sent Haitians two deportation flights since ending the status, even as advocates warn the country is gripped by gang violence.
Bel came to the U.S. in 2024 to reunite with his parents, who had fled Haiti three years earlier. He graduated high school with honors last May, was an active JROTC cadet and hoped to study medicine.
His father said the monitor's weight kept him from playing soccer and classmates bullied him over it, and he said Bel was not given a uniform with his JROTC class – possibly due to the device.
"I came to this country to pursue my education," Bel wrote on Instagram in late July. "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."
Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance said "these policies are what caused his untimely death," and Springfield pastor Carl Ruby said he was "crying out to God for righteous judgment" on those responsible.
Vice President JD Vance was singled out for blame by critics who recalled his role in the 2024 presidential campaign in spreading false allegations that Haitian immigrants in Springfield – which he represented in the U.S. Senate at the time – were abducting pets and eating them.
"JD Vance is the worst Catholic convert," shamed progressive activist Melissa Byrne. "There are not enough Hail Mary’s in the world to wash away his sins."
"Add this tragedy to the JD Vance death toll," agreed Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall.
"A promising young man, a high school honors grad who joined JROTC and dreamed of becoming a doctor, just killed himself because of the Trump admin’s obsession with hurting Haitians and the humiliating shame of an ICE ankle monitor," stated Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council. "His blood is on their hands."
"For the love of God, American voters need to stop the evil bastards in the Trump administration," exclaimed journalist John Harwood.
"Even by Trump standards this is a truly sickening story," added NBC Sports' Patrick Daugherty.