AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Twenty-year-old Pierre Damas Bel arrived in the U.S. from Haiti in 2024. He graduated from his high school in Springfield, Ohio, this year with honors. He was a talented soccer player, active in ROTC and he had recently started college at Wright State University. But on Monday, Bel died, a death that his family believes was a suicide motivated by the loss of temporary protected status or TPS for so many Haitian immigrants earlier this summer. Several weeks ago, Bel had shared on Instagram that ICE had placed a GPS monitor on his ankle. He wrote that he was, quote, "carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience."
I'm going to bring in now Carl Ruby. He's the senior pastor of the Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio. He is also an immigration advocate and has been with Bel's family since his death. And a warning, our conversation does include graphic descriptions of violence. Pastor Ruby, thank you so much for making the time to speak with us.
CARL RUBY: You're welcome, Ailsa.
CHANG: Can you just first tell me a little bit about Pierre? What was he like?
RUBY: Pierre was friendly, joyful. Everyone who knew him loved him. His teachers speak well of him. He works at Texas Roadhouse. His fellow employees and manager speak well of him. He was just a joyful, very smart young man who wanted to be a doctor.
CHANG: I know that you've been in very close contact with Pierre's family this week. Can you share how they're doing right now?
RUBY: Yeah. I mean, they're devastated, like, you know, all of our families would be. I think the difference is they're devastated and they're angry because this was just so unnecessary. This young man had never even had a traffic ticket, posed no threat at all. He was just terrified of going back to Haiti.
CHANG: Yeah. What is Pierre's family saying to you about his death? Why do they think it happened?
RUBY: They believe that it happened because of the ankle monitor. He was teased at school about it. He's a student at Wright State. He posted about it. He talked with friends about it. I mean, there are two things. He was ashamed of it, and he was afraid of going back to Haiti. So it's a combination of those two things. And I think what kind of pushed him over the brink was, in the ROTC class, they were handing out uniforms, and everyone in the class got a uniform except for him. And he was told he couldn't get one because of his immigration status or the ankle monitor.
CHANG: This is so horrific, and I'm wondering if you have had a sense to talk to a number of people in the Haitian community in Springfield and if you're gathering just how this death this week is affecting the broader community there, the broader Haitian community.
RUBY: Well, I've heard lots of reports of people who are suicidal. So in some sense, this doesn't come as a big surprise. It's like every time the Haitian community begins to get their balance, they get hit again. And they've taken one hit after another here in Springfield. The first one recently was when they started getting letters telling them they had to show up at the ICE office down in Blue Ash or over in Westerville. And that's where they get the ankle monitors, which everyone here refers to as shackles now.
And the second blow was there's just a dramatic increase in ICE activity. They're here every single day, picking up people. They seem to want to do it in areas where lots of people see them. It's usually on one of the main streets, gas stations, grocery stores. They are just terrified. And it's hard because they've all lost their jobs. They don't have money. People are trying to take food to them, and they're just - they're afraid to come out of their homes, but they are more afraid of going back to Haiti.
CHANG: Yeah. And just living in that state of mind sounds so incredibly tiring, exhausting and frightening.
RUBY: Yeah. I was walking into an ICE appointment with a man from my church, and as we were walking down the sidewalk to the door, he leaned over and he said, pastor, the gangs in Haiti just kidnapped my brother. And I said, what happened to him? And he said, they burned him. I said, well, is he OK? And he said, no, they burned him alive.
CHANG: Oh my God.
RUBY: And I've heard multiple stories like that just from the small sample of Haitians who attend my church. There's another man who the gangs in Haiti decapitated his best friend and left the body in the front yard of his house back in Haiti, where his wife and kids still live. I talked to a Haitian child in my church who talked about witnessing hogs eating bodies. You know, I talked to a reporter who's down there right now. He's embedded with the gang suppression regiment, and he said people who have been deported are getting off the planes and running for their lives.
You know, part of what happens, the government talks about giving them 24- or $2,600 if they self deport. The gangs assume everyone getting off the plane has that money. So they are targets, and they don't have that. I haven't heard of anyone getting that money. I've heard they get 65 bucks from someone in Haiti, and that's it. So the level of fear is just so, so high they will do anything, including take their lives, not to go back.
CHANG: Carl Ruby is the senior pastor at the Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio. Pastor Ruby, I'm so sorry for why we are talking today, but I thank you so much for joining us.
RUBY: Thank you, Ailsa.
CHANG: And if you or someone you know is in crisis or if you're thinking about hurting yourself, please, you can call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
Also, NPR has reached out to Wright State University ROTC for comment, and we have not yet heard back. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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