🚨 PIERRE DAMAS BEL SHOULD STILL BE HERE.
Pierre was a recent Springfield High School graduate.
Varsity soccer.
JROTC.
Scholarship recipient.
Wright State student.
He should bestanding at the beginning of his life. Instead, Ohio is mourning him.
And we are angry.
On Monday morning, Pierre pulled his car over on I-70 in Clark County, got out, and walked into the westbound lanes.
His family says his death was suicide.
They also say that shortly beforehand, Pierre had called his father terrified that he would be deported. He had written publicly about the humiliation of being forced to wear an ankle monitor.
He was 20 years old. Just months ago, Pierre was sitting in an Ohio public-school classroom. And it isn’t like the fear surrounding him just appeared out of nowhere.
👉What politicians say does not stay behind a podium.
👉What they normalize does not stay on television.
👉What they encourage does not disappear when the campaign ends.
🚨It lands on REAL people.
And for years, Springfield’s Haitian community has been made into a target.
Lied about.
Mocked.
Scapegoated.
Threatened.
Humiliated.
Used as campaign material.
Pierre had to live inside that climate.
He had just finished high school. He had just started college. He should have been worrying about classes, friends, work, soccer, and what came next.
Instead, his family says he was terrified of deportation. Of what came next. It became unbearable.
Now. There are people in power who helped create this climate.
People who fed it and who benefited from it. People who watched it happen and failed to stop it.
🚫They do NOT get to wash their hands of what they helped create.
🚫They do NOT get to spend years turning an entire community into a political target and then show up afterward calling the consequences “tragic.”
Pierre was a son, a friend, a teammate, a student, an Ohioan, a human being.
A 20-year-old who should have had decades ahead of him.
Political cruelty has consequences.
Pierre Damas Bel should still be here.
And the people who helped create the fear, humiliation, and dehumanization surrounding Springfield’s Haitian community should have to answer for their part in it.
Rest in power, Pierre. 🕊️
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988.
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: Since we are talking about political cruelty, let’s be REAL specific about who helped create the climate Pierre was living in.
Facebook User, Facebook User for President 2028: You helped turn Springfield’s Haitian community into a national target. You amplified the false claim that Haitians were stealing and eating pets even after Springfield officials said there were no credible reports. Your own staff was told the claims were baseless, and you kept pushing them anyway. Springfield then endured threats, evacuations, and national humiliation while you continued feeding the story.
BERNIE MORENO: You backed ending Haitian Temporary Protected Status. When people in Springfield were terrified that ICE enforcement was coming, you said Haitians should have already left on their own — that they should have effectively self-deported rather than wait to be forcibly removed. And when the Supreme Court later allowed TPS to end, your response was: “TEMPORARY protected status is temporary.”
Facebook User : When Ohio leaders were directly asked to fight for an extension of protections for Haitian families, you did not even respond. While thousands of people in Springfield were living with the fear of losing their legal status and being deported to a country the U.S. itself warned was extraordinarily dangerous, silence was your contribution.
-And then TPS ended.
-Haitians in Springfield were ordered to report to ICE.
-They were fitted with ankle monitors.Pierre Damas Bel was one of them.
He wrote about the shame and humiliation of wearing that monitor. His family says he was terrified of deportation.
Now look.
So spare us about this being some unforeseeable tragedy that simply dropped out of the sky.
👉An entire community was turned into a target.
👉People with enormous political power lied about them, demonized them, demanded they leave, shrugged as their protections disappeared, and then watched federal enforcement descend on Springfield.
🚫They do not get to wash their hands of the fear and humiliation that followed.
🚫They do not get to pretend their words were just words.
🚫They do not get to help create the climate and then act stunned when actual human beings are crushed beneath it.
Pierre was 20 years old.
Political cruelty has consequences.
- Facebook User: ❤️🩹
- Facebook User: So awfully true.
- Facebook User: May his memory be a blessing and a comfort to his family, friends and loved ones. May his death be not in vain but a spark to unite against the cruelty this administration is forcing on us all.
Also my heartfelt thoughts to the semi driver who struck Pierre may his heart and mind find peace during this devastating tragedy. - Facebook User: A young man with endless potential. May all who contributed to his hopelessness and death be judged harshly and prosecuted for their crimes against humanity.
- Facebook User: Such an unnecessary and heartbreaking death!
- Secular Education Association: Facebook User we couldn’t agree more. Devastating. Avoidable. Infuriating.
- Facebook User: “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.” Source: Facebook User
- Facebook User: The cruelty of this administration knows no end.
- Facebook User: There may be a vigil happening in Springfield on Friday evening. This one is happening in Dayton Thursday evening.
- Facebook User: If you’re in the Fairborn/Beavercreek area
- Facebook User: If you’re in Dayton tomorrow
- Facebook User: So why didn’t someone come forward, tell him to self deport and get the 2,600 dollars, and THEN ONE OF YOU SPONSOR him to return to the US and put him on the right path to citizenship. Oh I know, its just easier to blame someone else.
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