Pennsylvania Town up in Arms Over Plans to House Migrant Kids in Civil War-Era Orphanage

A Pennsylvania community is fuming over proposed plans to house 1,000 undocumented migrant minors in a historic Civil-war era orphanage.

A recent letter from a representative for Indiana-based disaster response organization, USA Up Star, asked to use the facility to ‘provide shelter for refuge[e] families’.

The Scotland School for Veterans Children, once an orphanage, was most recently used as a summer camp and is located in Scotland, Pennsylvania.

Several state lawmakers and residents of Franklin County pushed back on the potential plan to house the migrants at a town sanctioned meeting that was brimming over capacity with concerned citizens on Tuesday.

‘We are united in our opposition to illegal immigrants being housed by federal government contractors in Franklin County,’ a combined press release from Rep. Rob Kauffman and state Sen. Doug Mastriano reads.

‘We join with our neighbors, friends and constituents committed to defending Franklin County from the foreign invasion coming from our southern border,’ they added.

Franklin County resident Sue McPhail said: ‘Our concern is that we have no idea who these people are.

‘They’re unvetted – we don’t know where they came from, we don’t know if they’re involved gangs, we don’t know if they are drug traffickers or sex traffickers,’ she added in an interview with WGAL8.

In an letter penned in August to a USA Up Star staffer, Greene Township zoning officer Daniel Bachman wrote that the former school’s most recent use as a summer camp falls within the area’s low-density residential code and that its use as a higher-density shelter would not be permitted.

USA Up Star followed up with Bachman, writing they were working with the federal government on the subject and asking for additional zoning information from the township, according to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

Mastriano said if the plans to house migrants in the historic property that officials could still ty to stop it from happening.

He referenced the nearby Letterkenny Army Depot, noting the national security sensitivity of that tactical weapons and missile repair site and its proximity to the proposed housing site could prove to be a major liability if migrants got their way.

‘If it goes into effect here, we’ll see lawlessness. This will be a dangerous community,’ Mastriano said at the Tuesday meeting.

‘People will be fleeing because of the crime. A chain link fence would not keep a teenager out. I used to climb chain link fences when I was a kid, even younger than a teenager. It’s going to be devastating to the community,’ he added.

Additional concerns were presented as the joint press release continued: ‘In addition to impacting the housing market, an increase in population puts an increased demand on basic services such as water, sewer, trash removal and broadband.’

‘It also puts a strain on school systems, child care services, physical and behavioral health care providers, and public safety personnel such as our fire departments, EMS, police and the criminal justice system.’

Onlookers took to social media to share their outrage, as one user wrote on X: ‘Could use it to house American homeless and military veterans. I’m sick of giving all kinds of freebies to illegal aliens while American citizens suffer.’

Another commented: ‘We need to stop taking in millions of illegals and/or “migrants”. This country cannot afford it. We cannot afford the hit to our economy, to our system or frankly, to our culture.’

The Scotland School for Veterans Children was founded in 1895 to educate the children of Pennsylvania service members. Its Chambersburg campus closed in 2009 leaving 70 buildings vacant including a library, gym and chapel.