“I’m Walking Through the Streets… Carrying Shame and Humiliation”
The family of Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant in Springfield Ohio, says he died by suicide August 31 after losing Temporary Protected Status. Bel, an avid soccer player and JROTC member, was beginning his freshman year as an honors neuroscience student at Wright State University. But in July, Bel became one of about […]
Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant living in Springfield, Ohio, took his own life on August 31 after losing his Temporary Protected Status. Bel, an accomplished soccer player and JROTC member, had just started his freshman year as an honors neuroscience student at Wright State University. The loss of his Temporary Protected Status came in July following a Supreme Court decision not to intervene.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued Bel an electronic ankle monitor to track him in preparation for possible deportation. Bel's family contends that the ankle monitor caused him emotional distress, making him feel like a criminal. Pierre Ronal Bel, Pierre's father, expressed his son's feelings in an Instagram post, stating that he came to the United States to study and build a better life, not to be treated as a criminal.
The ankle monitor interfered with Bel's daily life, causing him to withdraw and become isolated. Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance told The Washington Post that ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitian residents was misguided and wrong. Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, also called Bel's death a "horrible, horrible tragedy" and denounced the decision to terminate TPS for Haitians.
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