The tragic death of a 20-year-old college freshman after being shackled by ICE “demands that we confront the cruelty embedded in our immigration system,” said one Haitian leader
Pierre Damas Bel had everything going for him. This past May, the 20-year-old Haitian immigrant graduated from the Springfield City School District, where he was in the National Honor Society and a member of the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. “He was recruited to play soccer at Wittenberg University and hoped to attend medical school after college,” NBC News reported. “The future seemed bright.”
HIS WORLD CAME CRASHING DOWN
But his whole world came crashing down at the end of July, his loved ones and advocates said. “Forced to wear an ankle bracelet after a July 29 check-in meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bel grew despondent,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Further humiliation followed when he was mocked by his peers and denied a JROTC uniform due to his shackling. “I’m not feeling OK,” he told his dad Monday morning. “I’m not thinking right because of the bullies.”
That same morning, Pierre reportedly drove onto Interstate 70 in Clark County, walked into the path of a semi-trailer truck, and took his own life.
The passing of Pierre Damas Bel is utterly devastating. He was a son, a brother, a college student and JROTC member with dreams of studying medicine—and he embodied exactly what the American dream could look like.
— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@pressley.house.gov) 2026-09-02T20:48:29.162Z
“Haitian leaders in Springfield and beyond said Bel’s death is symptomatic of the extreme stress many immigrants are under as they fear being detained and sent back,” The Washington Post reported. Under the administration’s mass deportation agenda, roughly 300,000 Haitian contributors have been unjustly stripped of legal status and made entirely vulnerable to detention and deportation to deadly conditions in their home country. Many, like Bel, have been shackled by immigration officials despite following all the rules asked of them by the federal government.
National and local leaders laid blame for Bel’s tragic death at the feet of this intentionally cruel mass deportation agenda. “These policies are what caused his untimely death,” said Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “Pierre died as a result of policy,” said Central Christian Church Pastor Carl Ruby. “It’s our immigration policy that took his life.” ICE’s cruelty “is killing people,” wrote Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal:
Pierre Damas Bel was a physiology and neuroscience student at Wright State who had dreams of going to medical school. He was a bright student and cherished community member.ICE’s cruelty is killing people.
— Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (@jayapal.house.gov) 2026-09-01T22:30:07.297391182Z
FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS MOURNING THE TRAGIC LOSS
Pierre was mourned this week in a number of vigils, including Wednesday night in Columbus, where community members similarly blamed the administration and demanded justice for their friend.
“A group of women who worked with Bel at a restaurant in Springfield made the trip to Columbus for the event,” WOSU reported. “They held homemade signs and spoke through tears. They shared stories of the other bus boys trying to teach Bel to swear, and Bel sheepishly using the words. They shared photos of him wearing colorful, snazzy outfits.” Another of Pierre’s friends, Yola, shared how the young man was deeply affected by not being able to play soccer due to the ankle monitor. Many Haitian community members have shared how ankle monitors are not only deeply insulting to contributors who are following the rules, but also how they are “reminiscent of chains and slavery,” as the Cincinnati Enquirer previously reported.
“I don’t want you guys to just see this and dismiss it as a little sad story. There’s so much nuance here,” Yola said. “It wasn’t just a bracelet. It was bondage. It was restriction.”
AN IMMIGRATION SYSTEM NOW BUILT ON CHAOS AND CRUELTY
Pierre’s death also “demands that we confront the cruelty embedded in our immigration system and demand accountability from those who continue to advance these policies despite the devastating consequences,” as Jozef continued in a statement received by America’s Voice.
The intentional cruelty that took Pierre’s life permeates practically every branch of our nation’s chaotic immigration system, from record in-custody deaths to stripping vulnerable children of their legal rights to deporting our neighbors to foreign countries they don’t even know to targeting the family members of active-duty military servicemembers to intentionally ignoring DACA renewal requests to outright refusing to medically treat a detained father even as the tumor in his neck grew to the size of a lemon.
“At the rate I’m going, I don’t think I’ll be seeing my grandchildren,” said Rodrigo, a 58-year-old green-card holder and construction worker from California.
ICE hasn’t paid for detainee medical care since October. Advocates call it the ‘death policy’ — my latest, w/ @kolyncheang.bsky.social. Spend some time with it www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art…
— St. John Barned-Smith (@stjbs.bsky.social) 2026-09-02T12:47:51.037Z
Yet even after this devastating news coming out of Ohio, the administration showed no remorse or any indication that it plans to halt its mass shackling of Ohio community members or the escalated deportation flights to violence in Haiti. These flights have included a number of U.S. citizen children who have been expelled from their own country alongside their parents, Miami Herald reports. One child was reportedly just three.
“The deported parents of the children condemned the move, telling the Herald that they found it ‘scandalous’ that children born in the U.S. were being sent to Haiti,” the report said. “They also condemned the Haitian government for agreeing to take them back when the government is not prepared to accept returnees. One of the children, a little boy, played with a toy as his parents reluctantly spoke.”
But this is also the latest in a cruel pattern from the administration, after deporting sick U.S. citizen children just weeks after taking power.
THOSE IN CHARGE MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION
“I wish President Trump could hear the mom’s wails,” Pastor Ruby continued in his call demanding justice for Pierre and all Haitian neighbors facing being uprooted from the homes and lives they’ve built in this country. “The family wants people to know that this was a suicide and they want people to know that President Trump, (Stephen) Miller, and Markwayne Mullin’s inhumane immigration policies made this happen.”
