Pierre Damas Bel (Photo courtesy of Instagram)

By David L. Snelling
South Florida Times

Rather than be deported to gang-torn Haiti and face imminent danger, a desponded young immigrant who lost his Temporary Protection Status (TPS) took his own life.

According to the Washington Post, 20-year-old Pierre Damas Bel, a college student and former high school honor student who was planning to pursue a career in medicine, walked into an onslaught of traffic on the interstate in Springfield Ohio and was struck and killed by a semi-truck.

The incident occurred on August 31, 2026.

His parents and the police believed he committed suicide.

After the U.S. Supreme Court gave U.S. President Donald Trump the green light to end TPS for roughly 350,000 Haitians nationwide, his parents said he was fitted with an ankle monitor and feared deportation.

They said he felt humiliated and like a criminal which is a sharp contrast to Bel’s desire to build a better life and become a doctor.

Bel was studying psychology and neuroscience at Wright State University and planned on attending medical school.

Bel fled Haiti due to the gang violence and reunited with his parents in Ohio, where he graduated from high school in the top 10 percent of his class.

The Trump administration stripping Haitians of their TPS and returning to Haiti apparently took a toll on Bel.

According to his father, Pierre Ronal Bel, his son begged ICE officers to remove the tracking device but they refused and he was being bullied because of the ankle monitor.

He gave up playing soccer because the device was uncomfortable and shared on social media about the humiliation he was suffering walking with a GPS tracker attached to his leg.

“I came here to study, not commit crimes,” he said on social media. “I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone. 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.”

Bel had a pending asylum case and was scheduled for another court hearing in October.

His family told the Washington Post that he feared for his left returning to Haiti with the escalating gang violence that is spiraling out of control.

On Monday, Bel called his father and said he was not feeling okay.

His father urged him to come home so they could talk.

Hours later, police arrived with the news that his son had been struck and killed by a vehicle on Interstate 70, bringing an end to a promising life and the cruel treatment of Haitians who fled their homeland which has drifted into a whirlpool of violence and anarchy.

“Everything was fine with him before this happened,” his father told the New York Times. “They put an ankle monitor on him and everything changed.”

Trump ending TPS for Haitians is part of a broader plan for his mass deportation operation to send people in this country illegally, visas or TPS have expired to their homelands despite seeking asylum and earning an honest living and attending school.

Innovation Ohio, a non-profit advocating for Haitians to remain in the U.S., blames Trump and Make Amerian Great Again (MAGA) allies for Del’s suicide.

“Pierre Damas Bel was betrayed by a system that promised him shelter, a system run by Trump and MAGA bullies who only care about billionaires,” it said on social media. “Congress must stop financing their war on our cities, healthcare, and kids. Demand that ICE keep their Hands Off Our Neighbors now!

Springfield, Ohio Assistant Mayor Tracey Tackett said Del should not have been treated like a criminal and instead granted deportation protection based on his college academics and his career plans.

“What occurred in Springfield this week reflects an ongoing failure of the government to live up to America’s founding ideals and its responsibilities to the people it serves,” she said on social media. “The U.S. House has already passed a bipartisan three-year extension of TPS for Haiti with the votes of Ohio Republicans.”

Tackett said Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said TPS should not have been canceled by the Trump administration.

She is urging the Senate to pass legislation to restore TPS.