'Blood is on our hands': Haitian honour student's death sparks outcry over ICE ankle monitors
Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, ‘live in fear’ of ICE detention, deportation
Warning:
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Haitians → spark → detention
This story contains descriptions of suicide.
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story → contain → suicide
Decorated with academic and athletic awards, Pierre Damas Bel was well on his way to fulfilling his dream of becoming a neurosurgeon.
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Bel → decorate → neurosurgeon
Described by teachers as a "student of the highest calibre" and a "deeply dedicated" member of his community, Bel was an honour student, captain of the varsity soccer team and volunteer at a food bank in Springfield, Ohio.
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Bel → describe → Springfield
But this summer, Bel lost the protected immigration status that allowed him to legally live in the U.S. after fleeing the ongoing instability in Haiti in 2024.
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him → lose → 2024
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fitted the 20-year-old Wright State University student with an ankle monitor in late July as an "alternative to detention."
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Immigration → fit → detention
But the device prevented him from playing soccer, and he reportedly began to be bullied by classmates and felt he was "treated like an animal."
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he → prevent → animal
"I came here to study, to build my future … not to be treated like [a] criminal," he wrote in a post.
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he → come → post
Bel was one of about 350,000 Haitians living and working in the U.S. who lost temporary protected status (TPS) after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump administration to revoke the humanitarian protection.
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administration → live → protection
Homeland Security's deportation campaign began immediately.
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campaign → begin → ?
"Those with terminated TPS are in our nation illegally," it posted alongside a video showing Haitian migrants in chains, escorted onto a repatriation flight on Aug. 27.
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it → terminate → Aug.
Once a lieutenant in his high school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program and described as a "natural leader" who would become a "great American," Bel was the only one in the Wright State ROTC program not to be given a uniform because of the monitor, his father says.
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father → describe → monitor
The following Monday, Bel walked into traffic on a nearby highway and was struck by a semi-truck, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol.
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Bel → follow → Patrol
He died on the scene.
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He → die → scene
His family believes it was a suicide.
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it → believe → ?
In the following days, memorials were held in his honour in Ohio and across the U.S., including New York City.
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memorials → follow → City
Many held ICE's immigration crackdown responsible for his death.
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crackdown → hold → death
"Racist anti-Haitian campaign murdered Pierre Damas Bel," one woman's sign in New York read.
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sign → murder → York
Asked to respond to advocates' allegations that the shame of the ankle monitor drove Bel to suicide, ICE told CBC any attempts to blame the agency for his death are false.
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attempts → ask → death
"No one is required to stay in the United States illegally and wear a GPS monitor," the agency wrote, adding that self-deportation is an option.
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deportation → require → monitor
But Yola Lamarre, a friend of Bel, says ICE's response oversimplifies Bel's mental health crisis and blames the young man for his own death.
"We have to be honest in where blood is on our hands," she told CBC News.
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she → say → News
Lamarre, who saw Bel as a little brother, said his death was "100 per cent preventable" if he had been treated more humanely.
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he → see → brother
"He told me how he would try to wear a certain wardrobe to hide the ankle monitor," she said.
"
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she → tell → monitor
He just wanted belonging.
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He → want → belonging
He just wanted acceptance.
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He → want → acceptance
At least 47 people killed in violent weekend attacks in Haiti, UN says
Who can protect Haiti?
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Who → kill → Haiti
An inside look at a country trying to repel violent gangs
Haitians were granted TPS after the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people in the Caribbean country.
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that → try → country
Other crises, including cholera outbreaks, Hurricane Sandy and the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, prompted further extensions.
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crises → include → extensions
After failed attempts to end Haiti's TPS in Trump's first term, the Department of Homeland Security announced in June 2025 it was ending it, saying the situation had "improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home."
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citizens → fail → it
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department tells its citizens not to travel to Haiti due to the risk of "crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest and limited health care.
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Department → tell → crime
The ankle monitoring program Bel was subjected to appears to be part of a larger strategy by ICE to "make life so miserable" that Haitians will self-deport, said Carl Ruby, senior pastor at Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio, a city where at least 10,000 of its roughly 60,000 residents are Haitian.
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Ruby → subject → residents
"They're afraid to go outside of their homes," said Ruby, whose church saw its Haitian attendance plummet from about 50 people to two.
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attendance → go → two
Residents 'shackled'
Ruby said hundreds of Springfield residents — including teenagers, elderly and pregnant people — have been "shackled" with ankle monitors, often leading to deep shame and social isolation.
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hundreds → shackle → shame
"Their old friends start to pull back from them because they're afraid that if they're with a person who has an ankle monitor, that they might be apprehended.
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they → start → monitor
Critics like Ohio Democratic congressman Greg Landsman say the electronic monitoring program also unfairly humiliates law-abiding migrants.
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program → say → migrants
"They aren't criminals," wrote Landsman.
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Landsman → write → ?
"It's all so wrong and cruel to pick on anybody, especially a group this vulnerable."
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It → pick → anybody
Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, said his community members are caught in a catch-22: no longer safe in the U.S., they also have nowhere to go.
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they → say → U.S.
"There is no country that is willing to welcome us," said Dorsainvil, who lost TPS himself.
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who → be → TPS
"We cannot go to work.
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We → go → work
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
