Nicolai Haugsted
1. Trump supporter backed a tougher immigration approach before an Ohio tragedy made the issue deeply personal.
Jack Buhring thought he understood the immigration debate largely from a distance.
The 41-year-old Ohio truck driver had voted for Donald Trump for the first time in 2024 and supported a tougher approach to immigration. Politics, however, became painfully personal on August 31 when his truck struck and killed 20-year-old Haitian immigrant Pierre Damas Bel on Interstate 70 near Springfield.
Authorities and Bel’s family have described the young man’s death as an apparent suicide. Reporting by The Atlantic has since focused on Buhring’s attempts to understand the person who ran into the path of his truck — and the immigration circumstances surrounding Bel’s final weeks.
For critics of the Trump administration, the tragedy has become a deeply emotional example of the human consequences they associate with its immigration crackdown.
Bel had lost protection from deportation
Bel arrived in the United States in 2024 and settled in Springfield, where he graduated from high school with honors, participated in JROTC and played soccer.
He later enrolled at Wright State University, with plans to pursue a medical career.
His immigration situation changed after the Trump administration moved to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.
TPS allows eligible nationals from designated countries to remain and work legally in the United States when conditions such as armed conflict or natural disaster make returning unsafe. Losing that protection exposed affected Haitians to potential deportation, although Bel also had a pending asylum case.
Immigration authorities had additionally fitted Bel with a GPS ankle monitor.
His father said the device left his son feeling humiliated, and Bel reportedly traveled to immigration offices seeking to have it removed. Family members have linked his distress both to the monitor and to uncertainty over his future in the United States.
A black ankle monitor remained at the scene
Buhring was driving his regular route near Springfield when he noticed a car stopping on the shoulder of the interstate, according to The Atlantic.
He began moving his truck away from the shoulder after seeing a man leave the vehicle.
Moments later, Bel ran into traffic and into the truck’s path.
The Atlantic reported that a black ankle monitor was among the objects left at the scene.
Buhring survived physically, but the collision left him struggling with what had happened. His subsequent effort to learn about Bel introduced him to details about the young man’s life that complicated his previous understanding of the immigration issue, according to the magazine’s account.
Bel was not simply an anonymous figure in an immigration statistic. He had been an honors student, a soccer player and a young man hoping to study medicine.
Critics point directly at Trump’s policies
The Atlantic’s account prompted an immediate response from journalists and other prominent Trump critics online.
“This is a gutting piece,” Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffrey wrote on X.
Television writer and producer Bill Prady reacted with a question.
“What have we become?”
Washington Post reporter Samuel Oakford offered just one word.
“Shaken.”
Journalist David Roth was considerably more explicit in assigning political responsibility.
“This is really sad, obviously, but also extremely well done. Unreal how much stupid, useless suffering this regime has created,” he wrote on Bluesky.
Those reactions represent criticism of the administration rather than an official finding that Trump’s policies caused Bel’s death.
Bel’s family and immigrant advocates have nevertheless repeatedly connected his deteriorating emotional state to the loss of TPS and the GPS monitor. His father has said Bel felt “treated like an animal” after being fitted with the device.
Trump’s Ohio immigration message meets a painful counterstory
Bel’s death has gained renewed attention at an especially striking political moment.
Trump returned to Ohio on Saturday for a rally in Vandalia, roughly 20 miles from Springfield, as Republicans campaign ahead of the November midterms.
That same day, more than 250 people gathered for Bel’s funeral in Springfield, according to The Washington Post. Members of the local Haitian community used the occasion to mourn the 20-year-old and voice fears about the administration’s immigration policies.
Trump supporters interviewed outside the rally did not necessarily accept that connection. Some defended stricter immigration enforcement and rejected attempts to blame the administration for Bel’s death.
Buhring’s experience presents a different and considerably more personal collision between those political arguments.
He supported Trump in 2024.
