09/02/2026
On Monday morning, 20-year-old Pierre Damas Bel called his father on video. “I’m not feeling okay mentally because of the bullying,” Pierre told him. His father told him to come home so they could talk.
Pierre never made it home.
Less than an hour later, Pierre parked his car on the shoulder of Interstate 70 outside Springfield, Ohio, got out, and walked into traffic. A tractor-trailer struck and killed him.
Thirty-three days earlier, ICE had put a GPS monitor around Pierre’s ankle. Pierre told people what it was doing to him. “I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone.”
He wrote that walking around with the monitor left him feeling “shame and humiliation” and asked how he was supposed to play college sports with it strapped to his leg.
Pierre had graduated from Springfield High School with a 3.8 GPA, belonged to the National Honor Society, played varsity soccer, served as a lieutenant in Marine Corps JROTC, worked at Texas Roadhouse, volunteered, helped other students learn English, earned scholarships, and had just started at Wright State University to study neuroscience. His teachers, employer, and coworkers wrote letters begging the immigration court to let him stay. A retired Marine captain gave Pierre his “highest endorsement,” praising his Honor, Courage and Commitment.
Pierre did everything America tells immigrants to do. Learn English. Work. Study. Serve. Volunteer. Stay out of trouble. Go to college. Build a future. And after he did all of it, America put an electronic tracking device around his ankle and made him walk through the community he had worked so hard to join feeling like a criminal.
After Pierre died, his father said, “The government treated my son like an animal.” ICE responded by confirming it had placed Pierre on electronic monitoring on July 29, then explaining that people fighting removal don’t have to stay here and wear monitors. They can self-deport, take a government-arranged flight, and collect $2,600 after leaving. Pierre was dead at twenty, his father was grieving, and the agency that put the monitor on his ankle essentially responded: He could have left.
And don’t make the mistake of thinking Pierre deserved dignity because he was exceptional. Take away the 3.8 GPA, the soccer, JROTC, scholarships, volunteer work, college, and Marine captain. Pierre still deserved to be treated like a human being. Human rights aren’t fu***ng merit badges.
There should have been more photographs of Pierre. College. Soccer. Graduation. Maybe medical school. Maybe an entirely different life he hadn’t imagined yet. Instead, among the final photographs he shared was one showing the GPS monitor around his ankle. Thirty-two days later, Pierre called his father and said he wasn’t okay. His father told him to come home.
Pierre never made it home.
And if you’re looking for the shame in this story, stop looking at Pierre.
The shame belongs to the country that made him feel it.
