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Hours before Ohio college student and athlete Pierre Damas Bel took his own life, he called his father for help.It was around 8 a.m., and he was sitting inside his car on the side of Interstate 70, struggling mentally and emotionally with the shame of being forced to wear an ankle monitor by immigration officials.
Bel, a 20-year-old student at Wright State University, said he had been bullied at school and felt “humiliated” by the device.“I told him to come home so we can talk,” Bel’s father said in an emailed statement.“Around 11 the police showed at my door to report that my son threw himself under a truck.”On Monday morning, Bel stepped into oncoming traffic and died from his injuries, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
His family blamed the humiliation brought on by the ankle monitor he had been wearing since July.Carl Ruby, a local pastor and immigration advocate, said in a statement that Bel’s family wanted people to know it was a suicide related to immigration policies.Bel arrived in the U.S.
in 2024 and applied for admission into the country using the now-defunct CBP One app, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an emailed statement.He was released into the country and settled in Springfield with his parents and two brothers.
Bel excelled in academics and athletics, becoming an honor roll student at Springfield High School and joining JROTC.He was recruited to play soccer at Wittenberg University and hoped to attend medical school after college, immigration advocates said.In May, the Springfield City School District featured Bel in a Facebook post highlighting recipients of a local scholarship that offered $2,500 to each student.
Bel wore a blue suit and a black bow tie as he accepted his award, with a big smile on his face.The future seemed bright.Things began to change July 29, when ICE placed him in an “alternatives to detention program” with an ankle monitor while he continued his immigration proceedings.He documented th...