(Washington, D.C.) –  In response to the death of Pierre Damas Bell, the Emergency Campaign for Higher Education and Schools Drop ICE has released the following joint statement:

“The Emergency Campaign for Higher Education mourns the death of Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian Wright State University student who died tragically in the wake of the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over a million people from crisis-stricken nations.

Our hearts go out to his family, community, and all who are enduring a relentless dehumanization campaign at the hands of ICE and an authoritarian government that is shredding civil liberties and destroying countless lives.  Pierre’s story shows how higher education can be a pathway to a better life – and how quickly that path can be cut off by surveillance, exclusion, and policies that treat immigration status as grounds for abandonment.

No student, community member, or worker should have to live under the routine fear this administration has normalized. We will keep pushing for campuses and communities that build real safety through welcome, not exclusion – and we will keep fighting for justice and dignity in Pierre’s name and in the name of countless others.”

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About Schools Drop ICE: Schools Drop ICE aims to get hundreds of colleges to drop their contracts with ICE’s key corporate enablers: Enterprise, Flock Safety, and ICE Air Carriers.