California, Pa., residents want answers about Romanian immigrants
CALIFORNIA, Pa. — More than 150 residents packed borough council’s municipal meeting room Thursday evening to voice concerns about an influx of more than 40 Romanians who have moved there during the past two months.
The Romanians, who said they came to America to escape persecution in their Bucharestarea homes, have been processed through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and have been released as part of the government’s Alternative to Detention program, which monitors flight from other nations.
The federal program helps the immigrants find temporary homes, a cheaper and more humane alternative to keeping them in detention.
But the Romanians, nearly all of whom are renting apartments from local real estate agent Vito Dentino, are not fitting well into the community of fewer than 7,000 people 35 miles south of Pittsburgh. Most of them do not speak English well, and residents have said they are standoffish.
Angry residents at Thursday’s meeting said the newcomers throw trash around, park their cars in yards, disobey traffic rules, and are disruptive in markets. Others said that they have seen Romanians killing chickens and children defecating in
public.
“We’re a very diverse town, we’re very open, but they aren’t assimilating to our laws,” said Pam Duricic, 59, a lifelong resident of California.
Council members, the borough administrator and police Chief Richard Encapera said they had no warning that the immigrants were coming and have had difficulty contacting federal authorities for assistance and explanations.
But they also said there have been no instances of violence or aggression, and the immigrants involved in minor infractions have been duly cited and paid their fines.
Janet Bateman, who has lived in California for more than 50 years, demanded that council members contact federal authorities to explain the Romanians’presence.
“Charleroididn’t get them. Brownsville didn’t get them. How did they come to be here?” she said. “This isn’t sunny California. This is California, Pa. We are a small town. How did the federal government come to know about us? There’s Pittsburgh, a big city. There’s Maryland, there’s Ohio, there’s West Virginia. Who threw a dart at a map and hit California, Pa.?”
An ICE official contacted by the Post-Gazette said immigrants who are released decidewhere they will live.
“ICE does not place ATD participants in specific jurisdictions,” the official said in an email. “There are (ATD) program participants living in California. ... [But] while ICE tracks all ATD participants, we cannot disclose where those residing in California, Pa., are from, nor can we confirm that all foreign nationals residing in California, Pa., are ATD participants.”
California officials said some of the Romanians wear ankle devices to monitor their movements, but the devices are not for criminal behavior, borough police said.
Mr. Dentino and other residents said they had interacted with some of the Romanians and found them to be pleasant but unaware of American culture and customs. Several suggested organizing a group of town officials and others, possibly from California University of Pennsylvania, to initiate an outreach and education effort.
“I have not had one problem with them,” said lifelong resident Lisa Buday, 50. “I say hi to them. ... This is a community. Let’s be human. Thisis not a fast process.”
California residents saw a sharp and sizable increase in the number of Romanians in the community less than two weeks ago, after a young man, related to several of those living here, died in an accident in Bucharest. Unable to return to their homeland, more than 100 of them came from across America to California to mourntogether.
The visitors stayed in the apartments of those already here.
One of them, a 36-year-old Romanian who came with his wife and two young children from their home in Baltimore, said the last of the relatives would be leaving in the nextday or two.
“People here have been nice to us,” the man, who refusedto give his name, said in broken English. “We say ‘Hello, good morning,’ and theytell the same back to us.”
Dan Majors: dmajors@post-gazette.com. Staff members Stephanie Strasburg and Elizabeth Behrman contributed.