in World News Not Just Ohio: Small Pennsylvania Town Also Mired in Tidal Wave of Haitian Migrants
by Warner Todd Huston
Charleroi, Pennsylvania, like Springfield, Ohio, is also experiencing a growing number of problems from a tidal wave of Haitian migrants flooding into their small town.
While the media focuses on the woes of Springfield, Ohio, and its recent flood of Haitian migrants putting pressure on the small town, other small towns are experiencing similar problems. One of them is Charleroi, Pennsylvania, nestled on the banks of the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh in the western part of the state.
According to the activist group America-2100, the rural town has suffered a 2,000-percent increase in its population of Haitian migrants — and crime and traffic altercations have soared as a result.
Residents have been flooding social media with reports that migrants are attacking people on the street and mugging them, stealing cars, and ending up in traffic accidents throughout the area.
WPXI-TV reported in March that the rising number of immigrant children has stretched the local schools to the breaking point as administrators and teachers toil to educate migrant children, many of whom do not speak English, and some of whom have never gone to school in their entire young lives.
One 11th-grade student told the station that a big problem is that many of these migrant students are really not learning anything despite being enrolled in free schools because they don’t understand what is being said in class.
“The biggest challenge that every Haitian has is they don’t know what you are saying. For you, it’s like blah blah blah, you don’t say nothing you are just sitting in the class listening and you just don’t understand,” the child, who is also a Haitian migrant, said.