Haitian student reportedly died by suicide after losing TPS. Right-wing columnist argues he ‘endangered’ Americans by walking into traffic

CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip opened a panel on immigration by recounting a Washington Post report about Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student who had lost temporary protected status in recent weeks. Phillip said Bel had been required to wear an ankle monitor, could no longer play soccer, and “walked into traffic and his family believes that that was him dying by suicide.”

Brianna Lyman, a reporter for The Federalist, said temporary status “does mean temporary, so eventually this individual may have been ordered to be removed.” She said it was “kind of insulting that we’re talking about this immigrant instead of Brianna Connolly from Massachusetts, who was strangled last week by an illegal alien.”

Leigh McGowan told Lyman, “It’s exhausting for you because your daughter wasn’t the one strangled.” Lyman replied that it is “not exhausting for the parents of Americans who watch their children get murdered by illegal aliens.” She then argued that Bel endangered Americans by walking into traffic. “And also he walked into traffic. Do you know the accident he could have caused for Americans driving?” Lyman said.

Family describes student’s final hours after he lost protected status

Phillip said Bel’s family believes he felt humiliation from the monitor and noted that he was 20 years old. Lyman answered, “It’s not humiliation. We have a right to enforce our laws.” McGowan asked Lyman, “Do you hear your voice? You should sound like an automaton.”

Lyman said The New York Times had written that “no one cause can be attributed to suicide” and that there is “no proof that this suicide was because of his ankle monitor.” Bel’s death is one of several recent cases involving individuals in ICE custody, such as when a 19-year-old died in Florida under circumstances still under investigation. 

She added, “Americans have the right to enforce their border laws, and if that means ankle monitor, that means ankle monitor.” Phillip said killings of Americans are tragedies, no matter who commits them, and that people who have done nothing wrong should not be treated as if they share blame for others’ crimes. Lyman said people in the country illegally are “all culpable for being here illegally.”

Bel’s father said his son called him about 8 a.m. Monday from the side of Interstate 70. The father said Bel was sitting in his car and struggling with shame over the ankle monitor ICE had placed on him. “I told him to come home so we can talk,” the father said in an emailed statement to NBC News. “Around 11 the police showed at my door to report that my son threw himself under a truck.”

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Bel stepped into oncoming traffic and died from his injuries. His family blamed the humiliation of the device, which he had worn since July. Pastor Carl Ruby said the family wanted the public to know they viewed the death as a suicide connected to immigration policy.

ICE said Bel entered the United States in 2024 through the CBP One app, was released, and later lived in Springfield with his parents and two brothers. He made the honor roll at Springfield High School, took part in JROTC, and was recruited to play soccer at Wittenberg University. Advocates said he hoped to go to medical school. In May, the Springfield City School District posted a photo of him receiving a $2,500 local scholarship.

ICE placed him in an alternatives-to-detention program on July 29 and fitted him with the monitor while his case continued. The next day, he wrote online that he had come to study, not to “commit a crime or hurt anyone,” and that he was “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.”

The use of GPS monitors is one method ICE employs in its detention alternatives, though the agency’s alternatives-to-detention program has faced scrutiny over other cases, such as a 43-year-old man who died in 2024 after guards allegedly shocked him 27 times. 

He was among roughly 300,000 Haitian nationals who lost TPS after a Supreme Court ruling. After the status ended, he could not stay on Wittenberg’s soccer team and moved to Wright State University, where his family said classmates taunted him. ICE said it would not comment on the cause of death during a pending investigation and would “not speculate about unverified claims regarding other individuals.”

Gov. Mike DeWine called the death a “horrible tragedy” that never should have happened and asked whether Ohioans want people “like this being picked up and facing deportation” done in their name. Ruby said, “We do not want to politicize this, but this is a political problem, and the only solution is a political solution.” Viles Dorsainvil of the Haitian Support Center said the case is believed to be Springfield’s first suicide tied to the recent enforcement and that many others in the community are depressed.