‘What fear does to a small town’
Town hall addresses immigrant intimidation in Charleroi
Through his work as an immigration lawyer, Joseph Murphy has seen a pattern emerging: provoke, publish, distribute.
“The intimidation is the product. The video is just the delivery mechanism,” he said, referring to a widely-circulated video of a white man using racial slurs toward a Charleroi business owner.
The business owner, a woman who is an immigrant, was shopping at the Walmart in Rostraver Township at the time.
“Thousands of people have seen this thing,” said Murphy, who works for Allegheny Immigration Group in Pittsburgh. “I imagine half of them – hopefully, a lot less than half – were emboldened by it. A good number of people were incensed, and a certain number of people were terrified.” That, he said, “is what fear does to a small town. It makes society, institutions, life in general, seem less safe.”
Murphy was one of several panelists to participate in Tuesday’s No Hate in Our State town hall hosted by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC).
The virtual town hall focused on the immigrant population of Charleroi.
State police Cpl. Aaron Allen, who investigates hate crimes, said police can charge someone with ethnic intimidation if they are the victim of a crime because of their race, color, national origin or religion.
In the case of the woman in the video, police are investigating to determine whether the man who accosted her can be charged.
Said Allen, “I couldn’t even imagine what she felt at that time. Not only at that time, but what she felt days after, because of how many eyes were on that video.”
PHRC held a No Hate in Our State town hall in Charleroi in December 2024. Three months prior, Charleroi’s Haitian population gained national attention after a mention by then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. At a campaign rally in Arizona, Trump claimed Haitian immigrants brought a “massive crime to the town.”
Tensions in the borough followed, with inflammatory and derogatory remarks about immigrants cropping up on social media, prompting a few Haitian students to withdraw from school as parents feared for their safety. Ku Klux Klan fliers also appeared at homes of some of the immigrants.
Murphy, who did not participate in the 2024 town hall but has been widely quoted regarding immigrants in Charleroi, said he received threats after Trump’s remarks.
But, he said, things seemed to calm down quickly in the borough.
“That gave us hope and provided a baseline in how a small town does a great job with migration, until lately where there is this environment of fear,” he said.
Charleroi Councilman Larry Celaschi expressed frustration that the borough is again being portrayed negatively.
“I just wish the borough of Charleroi could find a way where we are not in the news anymore. If we’re in the news, it sure would be nice if one time in 2026 it could be in a positive manner,” he said.
Anita Levels, PHRC civil rights outreach coordinator, said the town hall was geared toward empowering borough residents who want to advocate for their neighbors who are immigrants.
And Murphy said many of his experiences in Charleroi have been positive.
“They, generally, up until recently, really did a great job handling immigration, better than any other place I worked, and I’ve worked in a lot of small towns,” he said.
Dr. Alon Milwicki, senior research analyst, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center said the key to combatting hate is education.
“Keyboard warriors” on TikTok or Instagram aren’t educators, Milwicki said, encouraging everyone to look for verifiable, fact-based evidence.
Not doing that perpetuates the problem, and “it becomes a free for all for how we can justify whatever kind of hatred or whatever kind of misinterpretations that exist.”