Charleroi Residents Respond to Donald Trump Migrant Claims

Charleroi residents have responded to Donald Trump‘s comments about Haitian migrants in their Pennsylvania area, in the aftermath of the former president’s debunked claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Trump has been speaking about the Haitian population in Charleroi, a 4,000-person industrial borough, in Washington county, which has seen an influx of migrants in recent years.

He previously claimed Charleroi had “experienced a 2,000 percent increase in the population of Haitian migrants under Kamala Harris,” calling it a “flood of illegal aliens” and claiming it has brought “massive crime.”

On Monday, while Trump was speaking about immigration at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, he asked the crowd about Charleroi: “Has your beautiful town changed?”

One man could be heard shouting, “they’re everywhere” before he added, “it’s completely different,” and a woman yelled out: “It’s horrible.”

At the same event, before Trump came on stage, a Charleroi trucker named Ernie addressed the crowd.

He said: “Over half of our town is now filled with Haitian immigrants and illegal immigrants brought in and taking our jobs away.

“That there is a nation-killing practice which is brought in by the federal government and specifically the Biden-Harris administration.

“And I’m here with a dire warning to every American: this isn’t going to stop unless we can take our country back.”

But others have pushed back on the narrative, including Sean Logue, chairman of the Washington County Republican Party.

He recently told NBC‘s Nightly News with Lester Holt: “The Haitian immigrants here have a very good reputation, the problem is the federal government dumped these people in and aren’t providing any resources.”

A Haitian migrant, who works as an interpreter for the school system, told the same show: “When I came here like four years ago, the town was a ghost town and now we’ve got a group of people working and being taxed.”

NBC News’ Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor spoke to a Charleroi resident who echoed what people at Trump’s rally had said.

She said: “There’s just so many people and there’s just not enough resources, there’s not enough jobs, there’s not enough homes. People need to know that’s just not Springfield – this is coming to a town near you.”

“They’re not coming here to assimilate with us, they’re coming here to take over it seems,” she said.

Borough manager Joe Manning has criticized “the (very negative) way the (former) president portrays Charleroi and our immigrant population.”

He previously told Pittsburgh-based radio station KDKA: “(The Haitian population) are not a drain on our resources, they don’t cause problems—it’s nothing at all like what has been portrayed in the last couple of weeks.”

Republican Pennsylvania State Senator Camera Bartolotta has also spoken out against the narrative.

Two weeks ago, she said: “This is a completely different scenario than other states where Biden was flying or busing in illegals from Haiti or from other countries. Many of the Haitians in Charleroi have been here for two or three years already.”

As of April 2023, Charleroi had about 2,000 immigrants from multiple countries, including Haiti, according to a survey carried out by Charleroi’s immigrant liaison, Getro Bernabe, who was born in Haiti and has lived in Charleroi since 2020.

Newsweek has contacted Trump’s team via email outside of working hours for comment. It has also contacted Charleroi Borough’s local authority, via its general public email address for comment.

In Springfield, where between 15,000 and 20,000 Haitian migrants have moved to the city over the space of four years, city officials stress they are there legally. The city had a population of just under 60,000 in 2020.

The City of Springfield’s Immigration FAQ page says many are there under the Immigration Parole Program, which, under certain conditions, allows noncitizens to remain in the U.S. temporarily without meeting standard visa or immigration requirements.

Last year, President Joe Biden‘s administration launched a Humanitarian Parole Program specifically for Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans, allowing a certain number of individuals from these countries to apply for parole. They have to meet specific requirements, which can include having a U.S. sponsor and passing a background check. Haiti was included in the list given its struggles with political instability, frequent natural disasters, gang violence and long-standing poverty.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance has claimed that the Haitian migrants are still in the U.S. illegally because their legality has been achieved only “through the abuse of asylum laws.”

Newsweek has broken down how Springfield found itself at the center of the immigration debate here.