A Pennsylvania Communities There is outrage that nearly 1,000 migrants were housed, and reportedly still are, in a Civil War-era orphanage that was most recently used as a summer camp facility.
This building is located in Scotland Outside GettysburgThe property is owned by a Lakewood, New Jersey-based LLC, but Green Township officials cited a letter from a representative of USA Up Star, an Indiana-based disaster response organization, seeking to use it to “provide shelter for refugee families.”
In a letter to a USA Up Star staffer in August, Green Township Zoning Officer Daniel Bachman wrote that its recent use as a summer camp falls under its R-1 — or low-density residential — code and that a high-density shelter would not be permitted.
Bachmann wrote that the company may appeal his decision.
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Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg (AP Photo/Carolyn Castor/File)
Fox News Digital contacted USA Up Star for comment. On its website, it bills itself as a “service-disabled veteran-owned company incorporated in 2009 to provide best-in-class disaster, response and combat support during disaster, contingency, surge and displacement operations.”
According to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the organization contacted Bachman last fall to say they were working with the federal government on the matter and would like more zoning information from Green Township.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, a 2022 GOP candidate for governor who represents the area, said in an interview Friday that he is extremely concerned about what’s happening to the partially dilapidated Scotland property.
The retired Army colonel said an opaque wooden fence was recently installed around the building. He also said some critics are confusing its use as a summer camp with the idea that migrant minors are already being held there.
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If the attempt Home Overseas Even if the campaign ultimately succeeds, Mastriano said, authorities still have some tools at their disposal to stop it.
He pointed to the Letterkenny Army Depot outside Shippensburg, a strategic weapons and missile repair site that has national security sensitivity, and said its proximity to Scotland could become a barrier to bureaucracy blocking resettlement of migrants.
“This is going to cause an uproar in the community,” Mastriano said. “There are 1,300 people in Scotland Village,” he said. The number of migrants And the number of employees may be equal to or more than the current population of the city.
When contacted for further comment, Green Township Supervisor Shawn Corvell pointed Fox News Digital to correspondence and other information on the matter published on the township’s website.
A statement co-signed by Mastriano and state Rep. Rob Kaufman, R-Chambersburg, praised Green Township for its “strict interpretation” of the zoning ordinance.
Lawmakers said the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has no jurisdiction in the matter, but “as soon as we learned of this potential reuse, we immediately began to participate.”
“This is our hometown. Our families live here with you and your families,” they wrote. “We are working with Congressman John Joyce to send him information as he works to represent Franklin County and ensure that federal funds for this purpose do not come to Franklin County.”
Kaufman said converting the complex to unaccompanied minor migrant housing would “irreparably change” the township.
In response to this situation, Republican Joyce drafted an amendment he intends to add to the Department of Health and Human Services’ annual appropriations bill, authored by Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., that would prohibit the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) from using funds “…to provide financial assistance or other support for the housing of unaccompanied alien children in privately owned or operated shelter facilities or residences.”
When contacted for comment and information about the existence of a contract with the Indiana firm, HHS administration said they could not provide clarification or comment until Tuesday.
In a joint statement, Franklin County Commissioners Dean Horst, John Flannery and Robert Ziobrowski said numerous residents have expressed concerns over the matter.
“Franklin County already faces a housing shortage, and affordable workforce housing and quality rental options are too expensive. Our county’s population has grown every year since its founding in 1784; today it is the 13th fastest-growing county in the Commonwealth,” he wrote.
“The addition of several thousand new residents at the same time would place further burden and stress on the housing market.”
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Commissioners also expressed concern about the reuse’s impact on utilities and county services, but said neither Pennsylvania nor Franklin County has jurisdiction in the matter.
Mastriano said he believes the entire controversy is a result of the “open border” with Mexico.
The rezoning sought is an “HC,” or Highway Commercial Zone, he said, adding that this isn’t the first time the feds have put Pennsylvanians in such a position, citing previous Biden administration migrant flights that landed here Allentown and Avoca.
