Charleroi’s GOP state senator is defending Haitian immigrants in the town as Trump’s allies continue to circulate falsehoods

Pennsylvania State Sen. Camera Bartolotta said she always tries to be respectful online.

That is until “someone throws crap in my face, and I push back,” she told The Inquirer Wednesday. “That’s how I’ve always been.”

When Bartolotta (R., Washington) saw Libs of TikTok, a far-right social media account whose inflammatory posts have often resulted in real-life consequences, repost a xenophobic YouTube video about Haitian immigrants in Charleroi, a small Western Pennsylvania borough that Bartolotta represents, the GOP state senator fought back against the account that she follows and often retweets.

In a response on X, Bartolotta refuted the falsehoods in Libs of TikTok’s post, including the account’s unfounded estimates that 90% of the workforce in Charleroi is composed of Haitians and that Vice President Kamala Harris “imported 2,000 Haitians” to the town that are now “taking American jobs.” The account also said there is an “operation” in Charleroi where “Haitians are being bussed to and from food factories operated by Fourth Street Foods,” a food manufacturer.

“The business owner provides transportation for workers to get to & from his facility,” Bartolotta replied in part to Libs of TikTok’s post. “These are not immigrants being bussed in by Kamala. I follow you & repost but you are playing into the hands of people who are jeopardizing the safety of innocent children in our local school.”

Misinformation surrounding the borough’s growing Haitian immigrant population has been heating up since former President Donald Trump promoted disparaging and nonfactual claims about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, during the presidential debate, and Charleroi at a rally in Tucson, Ariz., this month. Right-wing social media accounts, Republican vice presidential nominee Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and allies have been fanning the flames.

Haitian immigrants have legally come to Charleroi for numerous reasons, including to escape violence and political unrest in their home country. Contrary to Trump’s claims, Charleroi’s Haitian immigrants are not a burden on local government resources and are not contributing to an uptick of crime, said Joe Manning, the borough manager.

The full YouTube video documents two men riding around Charleroi, pointing to vans they claim “carry” Haitian immigrants to work at local factories, including Fourth Street Foods, and falsely suggesting that immigrants are receiving preferential treatment over “domestic” workers, stealing, and causing an increase in crime.

The description of the video uses the phrase “Great job Replacement,” invoking an unfounded and racist conspiracy theory that has been promoted by white nationalists and linked to incidents of violent extremism around the globe.

The company pushed back on the baseless social media claims in a statement on its website.

“Fourth Street Foods takes pride in being a long-standing part of the Charleroi community, employing both local and international workers,” the statement said. “Our mission prioritizes providing safe and valued employment to all, regardless of origin, without displacing American workers. We regret that recent political attention has cast our town negatively amidst rebuilding effort.”

Haitian immigrants have made significant contributions to the Charleroi workforce, including working at businesses that were previously in need of employees, Bartolotta said. They’ve opened businesses along Main Street in the borough, possess professional and entrepreneurial skills, and are active consumers contributing to the economy.

“They get up in the morning and they use different vans that the business provides, and they get them to work, and they get them home, and they work hard, and they pay their taxes,” Bartolotta said.

The Haitian immigrant population is also being welcomed in the Charleroi Area School District, Bartolotta said.

As of March 2024, the majority of English Language Learners (ELLs) at the Charleroi Area School District were from Haiti. The district hired more ELL teachers, an ELL coach for the teachers, and an interpreter that cost over $400,000.

Charleroi Area School District Superintendent Ed Zelich said the couple hundred immigrant students moving into the school district are “not necessarily” costing local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars as Trump claimed in Tucson last week. The school gets state funding and reimbursements as their enrollment grows, and over the summer the district received a grant to certify some teachers in ELL.

It’s been a community effort to help the immigrant community in Charleroi, Bartolotta said, noting how her district director decided on his own to help provide students with clothes to wear to prom and how a teacher at the local school adopted a sixth grader whose mother died of cancer when they came to the U.S.

The kids “want to be part of their community and to see some of the vitriol that’s thrown their way because of this group who posted a video on X, I’m just trying to make it so that these kids aren’t threatened and that the people who are working really, really hard in Charleroi … their safety is not jeopardized,” Bartolotta said.

Springfield has received 36 bomb threats as of Tuesday evening even as claims about Haitian residents stealing pets have proved to be unfounded. As of Thursday, Charleroi has not received any publicly reported threats.

Bartolotta’s response to Libs of TikTok has not come without its backlash.

One X user said that Bartolotta was lying about the skills Haitian immigrants have brought with them to the U.S. Another called her a “RINO,” a name often used to refer to anti-Trump Republicans, though Bartolotta is an avid supporter of the former president.

Another user invoked the Trump slogan, “America First,” and used an expletive to say that Bartolotta should leave the U.S. to go to Haiti.

While Bartolotta opposed Libs of TikTok this time, she has retweeted their posts before and that of other accounts that often spread disinformation. She’s retweeted Libs of TikTok’s posts six times in the last month.

Misinformation about Haitian immigrants continues to fester online.

In the days after Trump’s mention of Charleroi, conservative Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk posted the same video as Libs of TikTok and X CEO Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, shared a video from an account seeking to vilify Haitian immigrants.

Bartolotta said she’s unsure of why this misinformation is rapidly spreading, but “tensions are very, very high on the left, on the right, in the middle, across the country … people need to take the temperature down.” Bartolotta declined to comment on whether the Republican Party has an immigration misinformation problem.

If misinformation continues about Haitian immigrants in Charleroi, Bartolotta said, “what’s done is done on social media,” and the rhetoric is a distraction from the real issues the borough faces, including the closure of a local glass factory.

“I’m not going to add fuel to the fire,” she said. “I think just back away, I’ve said what I’ve said, and if people want to know the facts, they should go to the source.”