Is Charleroi the new Springfield, Ohio?
Former President Donald Trump has targeted the small Washington County town for its growing Haitian population, and the impact it is having on the town's economy.
“The schools are scrambling to hire translators for the influx of students that don’t speak not a word of English, costing local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Trump during a rally in Arizona last week.
Charleroi's borough manager, Joe Manning told Marty Griffin on Tuesday, “If you work here, if you live here, if you come to visit, if you come to do business here, you don’t see any of these things that they’re talking about.”
Trump added that Charleroi is “a beautiful name, but it’s not so beautiful now. Has experienced a 2,000 percent increase in the population of Haitian migrants.”
“There’s nothing like that here in Charleroi,” said Manning. “They’re not a drain on our resources, they don’t cause problems, it’s nothing at all like what has been portrayed.”
Trump’s remarks came days after he made unsubstantiated claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield during the president debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris.
A recent survey conducted in Charleroi shows about 2,000 immigrants from 44 countries, including China, Spain, Indonesia, Africa and Haiti.