Aug 22, 2017 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – The number of asylum seekers from Romania has increased in California Borough, despite opposition from some residents, and other Roma families have settled in East Washington and Coal Center.

The number of Roma residents in California has risen from about 40 individuals in July to 69 families, each of which typically has about five children, California borough manager Richard Martin said. Meanwhile, three or four Roma families moved about two weeks ago into an old Victorian house in East Washington, and other Romas are likely to settle in the area while awaiting hearings that will determine whether they are deported or granted asylum, borough council President Jarad Cypher said.

“It’s typically not something you hear every day,” Cypher said Tuesday.

The Romas are descendants of nomads and travel in family groups. The ethnic group has been persecuted in Europe since before World War II for a variety of reasons.

The immigrants were attracted to the California area because it has a lot of vacant, affordable housing due to enrollment decreases at California University of Pennsylvania, and they have been entered into the federal Alternatives to Detention program because the country’s immigration detention centers are at capacity. Family leaders without criminal backgrounds wear ankle bracelets in order for immigration officials to track their locations.

California residents gathered more than 1,000 signatures on a petition in July seeking to have the Romas relocated. However, the opposition in the borough has since subsided, and none of the Romas has been charged with a crime, Martin said.

It is believed 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 because of persecution in Eastern Europe.

Cypher said he did not know how East Washington residents will react to their new neighbors, and he was “hoping for the best.”

He also said the Romas there might be violating the borough’s rental ordinance, which sets limits on the number of people with different last names in one rental unit.

“We have limited information, and I don’t want to overstep our boundaries,” Cypher said.

He said the new residents with school-age children could place a financial burden on Washington School District, which would need to hire translators if the children don’t speak English.

It was not known Tuesday if any Romas had enrolled their children in California Area School District. District Superintendent Michael Sears did not return messages Tuesday seeking comment about the families.