GEOFF BENNETT: Over the weekend, the family of Pierre Damas Bel laid him to rest.

The 20-year-old Haitian student lost his legal immigration status in July after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end temporary protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians.

Bel died by suicide a month later.

William Brangham As the story.

WOMAN: Pierre's legacy leaves a mark in our lives forever in how the criminalization of Haitian immigrants can be an unnecessary death sentence.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In a church in Springfield, Ohio this Saturday, mourners gathered to remember a young man's life and one whose death by suicide has come to symbolize the toll of America's immigration policy.

Pierre Damas Bel was a 20-year-old from Haiti, an honor student, a member of Junior ROTC, a young man just starting college with dreams of going into medicine.

PATRICIA BLAIR, Former Teacher of Pierre Damas Bel: Pierre was probably one of the most hardworking and dedicated students I have ever worked with in my 30 years of teaching.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Patricia Blair was Bel's English teacher at Springfield High.

PATRICIA BLAIR: Always so happy to be there, and I always felt like he was happy to see me.

And it was just one of those moments in your teaching career where you knew that this was a student who was going to succeed.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But, in July, Bel, along with hundreds of thousands of other Haitians in the U.S., were told that TPS, their Temporary Protected Status to live in America, was being ended by the Trump administration.

In a statement to the "News Hour" in August, ICE officials emphasized: "Temporary Protected Status is exactly that, temporary."

So Bel was summoned to an ICE processing center and fitted with an ankle monitor.

PATRICIA BLAIR: Pierre was very proud.

He always was very immaculately dressed.

He cared about how people perceived him.

And the ankle monitor for him was a shackle.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Bel wrote on social media: "I came to this country to pursue my education.

I didn't come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone.

Yet now I'm walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience."

Hundreds of other Haitians in Springfield, a town with a large number of TPS holders, were also given ankle monitors, which allow authorities to track their whereabouts while the administration plans their deportations.

Bel's father, Pierre Ronal Bel, said he spoke with his son right before he died.

He said his son complained of being treated like an animal, being bullied and called a criminal.

Quote: "He called me at 8:03 on a video call.

'I'm not feeling OK mentally because of the bullying.'

And I told him to come home so we can talk."

A short while later, Bel stepped out into oncoming highway traffic and was killed.

WOMAN: Let them see Pierre Damas Bel.

Let them see.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: His family displayed many of his personal belongings at his funeral and welcomed in the media, an echo of what Emmett Till's mother did back in 1955 to show the world the reality of the racist killing of her son, and thereby help galvanize the civil rights movement.

MAN: Like Emmett Till, Pierre Damas Bel died under the weight of a racialized system that did not provide him with equal liberty and equal justice.

And this is a story that we must continue telling.

Among those gathered was Ohio's Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who has publicly criticized the Trump administration for ending TPS.

GOV.

MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): This is a personal tragedy for the family and for the community here in Springfield.

But it's also a tragedy for the state of Ohio and our country.

We need people like Pierre.

So the policy is what's wrong.

We want to get rid of anybody who's violent and committing offensively.

I think we all agree on that.

But someone like Pierre, who all he wanted to do is live the American dream, I mean, he was -- that's what he wanted to do, and now he's gone.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That same day, about 25 miles away, President Trump defended his immigration policy at a rally for Republican Senator Jon Husted, who is in a tight race against former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: In Ohio, Democrats are running radical left phony Sherrod Brown, who was a disaster when he was in.

DONALD TRUMP: He helped dump thousands of migrants into communities like Springfield, Ohio, and destroyed those communities, and we're now bringing those communities back.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: President Trump hasn't commented on Bel's death, but in a statement to the "News Hour," a DHS spokesperson said -- quote -- "Any attempt to blame ICE for the death of Pierre Damas Bel are false.

No one is required to stay in the United States illegally and wear a GPS monitor."

In the weeks since Bel's death, immigration authorities have reportedly begun ordering Haitian immigrants to download a phone app that tracks their location, instead of requiring an ankle monitor.

It's an enforcement shift that might have made a difference for Bel, one of many painful what-ifs, says his former teacher.

PATRICIA BLAIR: It just haunts me.

Had I e-mailed him one more time, had I reached out, would that have made a difference?

And we won't know.

But I'm hoping that what comes out of this is that I don't have to worry about any other student suffering that same kind of indignity and trauma.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm William Brangham.