President Donald Trump has ended the legal protections for millions of immigrants across the United States, including those with Temporary Protected Status, a program for people who can’t safely return to their home countries because of dangerous conditions. 

Haiti has been covered by TPS since 2010, but in June 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could end the designation. TPS for Haitians expired on July 27, affecting more than 300,000 Haitians who had relied on the protection. 

20-year-old Pierre Demas Bel was one of the Haitians affected by the ruling. 

Bel had recently graduated from high school and started at Wright State University, where he planned to study neuroscience and eventually attend medical school. 

He came to the U.S. to build a future, but after TPS was terminated, he was placed on an ankle monitor through an alternatives-to-detention program while his immigration proceedings continued.

In an Instagram post, Bel wrote, “I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone.” He described feeling ashamed of the GPS monitor and questioned how he was supposed to play college sports while wearing it. 

According to a statement from his father, Bel tried to have the ankle monitor removed and was bullied by classmates because of it.

On Aug. 31, Bel died by suicide after stepping into oncoming traffic.

Four days later, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed Bel’s death during a press conference in Warren County, Ohio. 

When asked about Bel, Mullin stated, “We were following our procedures, we did our job, what happened when he went home, he wasn’t in our custody, we are not responsible for that.” 

Mullin’s response reduces the question of responsibility to whether Bel was physically in government custody when he died and, in doing so, overlooks the impact of the policies that put him in that position. 

It’s impossible to separate Bel’s death from the circumstances: he had lost his immigration protection, was placed on an ankle monitor and had spoken publicly about its effect on his life.

The Trump administration’s policies shaped the circumstances he faced, yet its response shows little concern for the human consequences of those policies. 

The government should recognize the impact of those decisions and treat immigrants as people whose lives are affected by them. It’s appalling that immigrants can be reduced to their legal status while the people behind those labels are so easily erased.

Bel’s death also raises a larger question about the immigration system itself. 

He isn’t the first immigrant to experience the fear and uncertainty that can come with an unstable immigration status, and he likely won’t be the last. 

An immigration system that repeatedly leaves people living with that fear needs to be reformed.

Immigrants should not be treated as cases to monitor or statuses to revoke when there are real people and real lives behind every decision. 

Bel’s death should force the government to confront the human cost of an immigration system that has blood on its hands.