Vigils held in US for Haitian student Pierre Damas Bel who died by apparent suicide after forced to wear ankle monitor, stripped of TPS status

Vigils are being held this week for Pierre Damas Bel, a Haitian student from Ohio who had lost his Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and felt “humiliated” by wearing an ankle monitor.

The 20-year-old resident of Springfield, Ohio was one of more than 300,000 Haitians who had recently lost their TPS designation under the direction of US President Donald Trump, who has made anti-immigrant policy one of main platforms.

"Pierre is dead because a policy stripped away his protection and threw his life into crisis,” said Khalid Turaani, executive director of CAIR-Ohio, in Columbus, where a vigil was held Wednesday evening to honour the life of Bel.

“This wasn’t an accident of fate, it was the direct, expected result of an immigration system that has grown crueler by design, and a political climate that has made it acceptable to humiliate people like Pierre,” he said in a public statement.

It is believed this is the first suicide by a Haitian in the US following the reversal of TPS for Haitians. Hours before his death on Monday, Bel had called his parents and said he felt humiliated for having to wear an ankle monitor, which he said his school mates had bullied him over.

He drove on the interstate highway and parked his car on the right shoulder and then walked into oncoming traffic. He succumbed to his injuries at the scene. His death saw strong responses that crossed party lines.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, described Bel’s death as a “horrible tragedy.”

“Fran and I, since we learned about this, are thinking of this young man, Pierre, Pierre’s mom, and dad, and family. This is a horrible, horrible tragedy,” DeWine said, according to local news reports.

“He had graduated from high school here. He was well-liked; he was in a junior ROTC. And I’m told by those who knew him, he had great dreams about what he could do in this country and what he could contribute to this country,” the governor continued.

Bel was an honours student at Wright State University, where he played soccer and was a member of the ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps). He had dreamed of becoming a doctor. He previously attended high school in Springfield, Ohio.

In 2024, Springfield became known for unsubstantiated rumours that local Haitians were eating domestic cats and dogs. Trump brought up the accusation during a presidential debate in an attempt to paint his opponent, Kamala Harris, as soft on immigration. Since then, racist rhetoric against Haitians, particularly in the Springfield area, has surged.

TPS is a humanitarian programme that started in 1990 with the purpose of giving legal protection to people from countries where returning would be too dangerous (due to extreme cases, such as war or natural disaster). There are currently 1.3 million people from 17 countries holding Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Most are facing the likely loss of their protected status.