A Haitian-born college student in Ohio died in what his family believes to be a suicide after he lost his temporary protected status protections amid the Trump administration’s termination of Haiti’s TPS designation.
Pierre Damas Bel, 20, died on Monday as he walked into oncoming traffic after parking his vehicle on the right shoulder of Interstate 70, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol.
“Bel succumbed to fatal injuries at the scene,” Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a statement, adding that the incident remains under investigation.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday that Bel’s death is a “horrible, horrible tragedy.”
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“He graduated from high school here,” DeWine said. “He was well liked. He was in the junior ROTC. And, I’m told by those that knew him that he had great dreams about what he could do in this country and what he could contribute to this country.”
“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 added.
Bel’s father told The Haitian Times that his son was “distraught” after weeks of wearing an ankle monitor. He was among some Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio area who have been required by the Department of Homeland Security to wear ankle monitors, after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to end Haiti’s TPS designation, potentially exposing roughly 350,000 Haitian nationals to removal.
“In his last days, I did not recognize him as he was such an energetic kid who loves life, friends and family, and education,” Bel’s father, Pierre Ronal Bel, said in a statement read by Pastor Carl Ruby.
Bel’s father said he was “treated like an animal” after receiving his ankle monitor, according to WSYX.
His father told The Washington Post that Bel left home before 8 a.m. on Monday and called shortly after to tell his father he was not feeling okay mentally.
“I told him, ‘Come home so that we can talk?’ I had my youngest to take to school. I took him to school,” his father said.
But later that morning, police showed up at his home to inform him his son had died.
A month before his death, Bel spoke out about his experience wearing an ankle monitor.
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“I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone,” he wrote on social media.
“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 added. “I came here to study, to build my future and to live a better [life,] not to be treated like a criminal. So now, how am I supposed to play college sports with a GPS monitor on my leg?”
Springfield pastor Carl Ruby said on Monday that the family believes Bel took his own life as a result of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda that targeted TPS.
“I’m sitting with a family right now whose son threw himself in front of semi truck today after being teased by fellow students at Wright State about his ankle monitor,” Ruby wrote on Facebook.
“I wish President Trump could hear the mom’s wails. The family wants people to know that this was a suicide and they want people to know that President Trump, [White House deputy chief of staff] Stephen Miller, and [Homeland Security Secretary] Markwayne Mullin’s inhumane immigration policies made this happen,” the pastor continued.
Many of the roughly 15,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield have lived in the U.S. for years, unable to return to their home country that has faced years of violence, turmoil and extreme poverty.
In a statement to WBTN, ICE said it “does not comment on the cause of death while that investigation is pending, and we will not speculate about unverified claims regarding other individuals.”
Bel graduated from high school in May and was set to begin his first semester at Wright State University after being unable to play college soccer at Wittenberg University because of his ankle monitor, the Wittenberg men’s soccer team said in a Facebook post.
“He took 2 trips to Cincinnati and Westerville to plead to the officers to remove the bracelet since he’s a soccer player and he felt embarrassed and humiliated when he’s among his classmates at the University,” Bel’s father wrote on X. “Last Friday, August 28, 2026, he told me, ‘Dad I felt humiliated. Since they gave uniforms to all my classmates at JROTC their uniform, but except me because of the bracelet.'”
Wright State University President Sue Edwards said the school is “heartbroken by this devastating loss.”
“Pierre was an active honors student who was passionate about soccer and was already actively engaged in his classes and the campus community. The University mourns the death of Pierre and extends our deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time,” Edwards said in a statement.
