Jul 18, 2017 4 min read

CALIFORNIA – Professors at California University of Pennsylvania have reached out to help a group of asylum seekers from Romania adjust to their new homes in California Borough, a town that hasn’t entirely warmed up its new neighbors.

A group of local ministers has also come together with a similar plan to help the 40 or more Romas adjust to American culture, said Richard Martin, California Borough manager.

“All we can do is facilitate a dialogue,” Martin said Monday, four days after a group of about 200 local residents crowded a borough council meeting to voice objections to the program that drew the immigrants to this small college town. The Romas relocated to the borough in the spring under the federal government’s Alternatives to Detention program, Martin said, because the country’s immigration detention centers are at full capacity.

The Romas, who are descendants of nomads, travel in family groups, Martin said. The Roma, who are referred to as gypsies, have been persecuted in Europe since before World War II for a variety of reasons, according to the Holocaust Encyclopaedia and other online sources.

The immigrants were attracted to the borough because it has a lot of vacant, affordable housing due to enrollment declines at California University of Pennsylvania, he said, adding that the Vito Dentino Agency has been handling many of the rental agreements. Martin said Dentino is prohibited by federal law to discriminate against people who want to rent his properties, and that his buildings comply with local codes. Dentino did not return a message seeking comment on the situation.

Opponents to the relocations have created an online petition that basically seeks to “get them out,” attracting more than 1,100 supporters, Martin said. Their postings on social media have referred to the group as a public nuisance that is endangering the welfare of residents. Others have erroneously referred to them as illegal immigrants, some of whom have been defecating in public.

Martin said he knows of only one incident where a child pulled down his pants outside because he couldn’t make it home in time to use a bathroom.

It is believed that the members of the group came into the country through Mexico without documentation and approached U.S. customs officials about seeking asylum in the United States from persecution in Eastern Europe.

All of them since have received some form of federal documentation, and more of them are expected to arrive in the borough. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also selected family leaders without criminal backgrounds and gave them ankle bracelets in order to know the locations of the families, said Martin, who received the information from the agency.

An ICE official was preparing a statement about the California situation, but it was not available Monday.

Martin commended the borough’s police chief, Rich Encapera, for working with borough police officers in creating a plan for communicating with the Romas, most of whom don’t speak English. The chief has compiled a list of phone numbers for the English-speaking Romas for the officers to call for translators for such instances as a traffic stops.

Martin said the Romas have not been a problem for police, no more so than the Cal U. students who get pulled over for speeding.

Meanwhile, California native Brianne Bayer Mitchell said Monday that she was surprised by the expressions of anger and terror in some of the faces of local residents in media reports from Thursday’s California Council meeting.

“They’re here and we’re here and we have to find a way to work together,” Mitchell said.

She said she was going to drop off 25 copies of a book written by her daughters, “Ella and Lila meet the Monongahela Mermaid” to the Roma families with children. The books can help them learn to read English and they also carry a message about working together to make the community a better place.

Cal U. spokeswoman Christine Kindl said nothing has been arranged yet for the university to help the immigrants.

She said the professors “recognized a need” and will see if they can find the expertise to help the asylum seekers.