Springfield advocates demand end to ankle monitors after Haitian student’s suicide | Local

Springfield community leaders and advocates are demanding an end to ankle GPS tracking for Haitian immigrants following the suicide of a 20-year-old student who friends and family say was driven to despair by the device’s stigma.

The family attended the press conference Tuesday, Sept. 1, at Central Christian Church following a meeting with a local funeral home, but chose not to speak publicly. Instead, Pastor Carl Ruby read a statement written by Pierre Damas Bel’s father, Pierre Ronal Bel. The elder Bel penned the statement Monday, Aug. 31, just hours after his son died after stepping in front of a semi-truck on I-70.

“After my son was outfitted with an ankle monitor, he felt like he was treated like an animal,” Pierre Ronal Bel said. “He took two trips to Cincinnati and Westerville to plead the officers to remove the bracelet since he’s a soccer player and he felt embarrassed and humiliated. When he’s among his classmates at the university — he’s a student at Wright State — he was bullied a lot with a lot of people telling him he’s a criminal.”

The elder Bel wrote that his son “felt humiliated” when he was denied a JROTC uniform because of the ankle monitor. The Springfield News-Sun has not independently verified this.

Pierre Damas Bel was given an ankle monitor in July, and Ruby said he experienced deep pain after losing his status.

Pierre Damas Bel has two younger siblings — a 15-year-old who is barely talking now and a 3-year-old who doesn’t understand what happened, Ruby said.

Yola Lamarre of the Haitian Community Network of Columbus, who served as a mentor to Pierre Damas Bel, said he shared “a lot of depressive thoughts with me after he saw the ankle monitor situation being targeted to Haitians in Springfield.”

Lamarre said people who often say “temporary means temporary” in reference to the end of temporary protected status for Haitians do not understand that Haiti is a country that is “continuously destabilizing.” She said the government needs to stop “reducing people to political pawns and stories.”

“This was a situation that could have been prevented,” Lamarre said. “He was more patriotic than hateful Americans that (are) pushing this harmful, dehumanizing rhetoric. He was a JROTC student; he showed powerful leadership as a varsity soccer player. It’s time for people to wake up. This has nothing to do with immigration enforcement when you’re dehumanizing people — you’re putting chains on people.”

Lamarre said the Trump administration has “blood on its hands.”

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol Springfield Post, troopers were called at 8:45 a.m. Monday, Aug. 31, to mile marker 66 of Interstate 70 westbound. OSHP found that Pierre Damas Bel had parked his 2006 Toyota Avalon on the right shoulder before getting out of the car and walking into the westbound lanes, according to a release.

He was struck by a 2001 Kenworth tractor-trailer tanker combination and pronounced dead at the scene.

Luckey Philostin, a member of the youth organization Fom Sove Production Outreach, said she understands the anguish of losing a loved one to ICE — her own father was deported to Haiti when she was 11. She said he died in Haiti in 2019.

As Philostin spoke of her pain and expressed her sorrow for Pierre Damas Bel’s family, someone could be heard wailing. Advocates rushed to provide comfort to the person, who was out of view. Having endured loss early in life, Philostin offered a message of hope to youth in grief, urging them to keep going.

“It gets better,” she said.

Vilès Dorsainvil, president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, received the family at the center Monday, where they told him that Pierre Damas Bel was on the phone with his father just before he died. He said the father took Pierre Damas Bel’s younger brother to school and around 11 a.m., the police showed up at the family’s home with news that Pierre Damas Bel had died.

“Last Sunday, we were having a peaceful march asking to unshackle Springfield, and today, we are living with the consequences of shackling Springfield,” Dorsainvil said. “I don’t know how many young people we have to lose before this administration understands what is at stake.”

Dorsainvil said the government can deport people back to Haiti if it so chooses — despite the dire conditions — but it’s inhumane to “chain” them while they are still in the U.S.

“You don’t have to destroy them,” Dorsainvil said.

Though Ruby expressed doubt that current legislators will act, he still urged state and federal lawmakers to intervene and end the ankle monitoring program.

On July 30, Pierre Damas Bel posted a 20-photo Instagram carousel highlighting his awards, diploma, plans to study neuroscience at Wright State University, soccer team, and the electronic monitor around his ankle.

“I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone,” he captioned the post. “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. I came here to study, to build my future and to live a better (life), not to be treated like a criminal. So now, how am I supposed to play college sports with a GPS monitor on my leg?”

Pierre Damas Bel was a varsity soccer player for Springfield City School District, where he graduated in May. He was in the National Honor Society and a member of the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

In his Instagram bio, Pierre Damas Bel wrote he was studying both physiology and neuroscience in preparation for medical school.

Wright State University said it has no confirmed information regarding any complaints or investigations into bullying involving Pierre Damas Bel.

“We are heartbroken by this devastating loss. Pierre was an active honors student who was passionate about soccer and was already actively engaged in his classes and the campus community,” Wright State University President Sue Edwards said in a media release. “The University mourns the death of Pierre and extends our deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time.”

Gov. Mike DeWine called Ruby to offer his condolences to the Bel family. Ruby said the governor shared that he understands the pain of losing a child at a young age, having lost his own daughter, Becky, in a 1993 car crash.

Hundreds of local Haitians have been outfitted with ankle monitors either at appointments at ICE’s Blue Ash office near Cincinnati or after being detained and released, according to advocates. Many have complained of pain, swelling, blisters or the monitors interfering with their ability to work.

ICE said Pierre Damas Bel applied to enter the U.S. March 5, 2024 at the Brownsville-Gateway Port of Entry via the CBP One mobile app, “and he was released into the country by the Biden administration.”

Lamarre said Pierre Damas Bel arrived to Columbus in 2023 and moved to Springfield in 2024, which Ruby said was to play soccer at Springfield High School. Pierre Damas Bel didn’t speak English when he arrived but learned quickly. CBP One was an app U.S. Customs and Border Protection introduced in 2020. Under former President Joe Biden, the app allowed migrants who did not have entry documents to schedule appointments at southern border ports of entry. It became the primary method for those seeking asylum to enter the country under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

The Trump administration ended the use of CBP One for processing asylum seekers. The app’s functions were transferred to the new app CBP Home, which guides immigrants through the process to return to their country of origin voluntarily.

On July 29 this year, “ICE placed him on alternatives to detention program with an ankle monitor while he continued in his immigration proceedings,” an ICE spokesperson said.

ICE has an alternatives to detention program to allow immigrants to stay in their community while immigration proceedings are ongoing. The program has multiple subprograms that each use different methods and supervision levels.

“No one is required to stay in the United States illegally and wear a monitor. Illegal aliens have a lawful, voluntary option: they can self-deport through the CBP Home app. Eligible participants receive a government-arranged flight home, a $2,600 exit bonus after departure is confirmed, and forgiveness of civil failure-to-depart fines,” the spokesperson said. “Remaining in the country illegally, while fighting removal, is a choice. Leaving with a free flight home and $2,600 is also a choice. ICE will continue to use detention or alternatives to detention as needed those illegal aliens who stay in violation of the law.”

GPS tracking was implemented after loss of protected status.