I live in Berks County, PA not too far from Reading, PA

Roughly 45-50 miles give or take from Philadelphia

This area is still pretty "middle of nowhere" compared to other areas which are rapidly getting built up.

It was nice for early March so I took my two boys (6 and 9) to a park a few miles up the road from our home. It's a nice one with two playgrounds one for very young kids and one for older kids, ball fields, a new basketball court and a brand new pickleball court.

We played basketball for a bit then walked up to the playground that is for older children and I let them play for a while. It was pretty busy with lots of kids and parents out for the afternoon.

Here's where it gets a little odd and made me feel a little odd too:

3 brand-new vehicles come in with NY state license plates. Two SUV's and a van.

Out comes about 20 (Mexican?) Hispanic people all speaking Spanish and not a single word of English spoken.

They proceed to take over the basketball court and start playing volleyball with a soccer ball! Like hitting it back and forth over the center court line over an imaginary net. I've been seeing more and more cars around here in the past year or two with NY plates which you never saw before. You'd see the occasional NJ or DE plate but rarely anything else.

I watched them for a bit then gathered up my boys and left. I'm starting to wonder, are they starting to settle illegals in our area now?

Or am I being paranoid here? We've had Hispanic people around for years, most restaurant staff are Hispanic and good hard workers. I'm just not sure about these NY tags on 3 vehicles. Maybe they are starting to move down from NY state into PA? I know that Reading has a very large Hispanic population.

quote:

I'm starting to wonder, are they starting to settle illegals in our area now?

Either visiting relatives, or new arrivals. Reading and Allentown areas have seen a huge increase of Hispanics from NY and beyond. Cannot say why except to say its lower costs and right down I-78. For years now you could see the changes at French Creek Park (and others) on summer holidays.

We're being replaced

Maybe they spend their Mayor Adams money on a new ride!


Oddly, I find here in NY many of the hispanic folks of dubious immigration status drive cars with PA plates.

Of course the legality of the plates in dubious as well.

Did you pay enough attention to notice if everyone got back in the same vehicle or if they actually swapped vehicles?

A lot of the NY tagged SUVs are rentals. Every time I ask a driver of them here in Kentucky, I get the same answer, rental. This northern part of the State is loaded with illegals. Many flooding in from Ohio. We aren't supposed to take notice. Newer vehicles, nicely clothed and getting hired at the many warehouses and large employers like Amazon. I hope deportations send them all back, not just those who are criminals.

Do the vehicles appear to be the commercial type that a church, outreach center or, social services would utilize?

Is it possible there's a local church that's serving as a mission center...only instead of sending out missionaries, they're receiving them?

I'm surprised they weren't playing "futbol".

Welcome to Texas world. Years ago our “neighbors” took over the neighborhood rec center tennis courts to play volleyball. All the courts had to be locked because the folks who had reserved them for tennis could never play otherwise

Democrats ..

That might have been a work crew enjoying the weather like you were.

I've had several work crews that were mostly Hispanic. On the site they spoke English, among themselves they spoke Spanish. Every nice day after leaving the job site they would load up in their vans and work trucks and head to a park to play soccer for an hour or so before heading back to the hotel to make dinner.

@PASig:

I grew up in nearby Lebanon and my sisters still live in Richland. While there's always been a significant Latino population in the area, my sisters report a dramatic shift in the sheer numbers and demographics.

They describe Lebanon as looking like a third world country (with the same type of problems) in many areas and attribute it to the influx of immigrants who don't want to assimilate. They don't even go there if they don't have to.

I'd imagine Reading might even be worse.

Like MelissaDallas said..."Welcome to Texas!!!". When my wife and I moved back to her home town in the mid-70's, the school was 10% Latino... now it's 95%+. Not saying they are all bad people most of them are good hard working folks but it's just the facts of life. A few back always come with the good.

Of course Eastern PA has been filling up with people from NJ/NY (and ruining it) forever. But it seems they're encouraging it. At lunch when I watch Youtube I'm constantly hit with ads for Bucks County, not sure if it's trying for tourists, people to move there or both. The first time I saw one I was half paying attention and thought I'd heard it wrong. (though I've never paid close enough attention to see if it's the county running the ads or developers.)

quote:

Originally posted by Skull Leader:
I'm surprised they weren't playing "futbol".

and yelling, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL" in the background

Yes.

The demographics of the customers at the Costco in Upper Macungie (Allentown), PA which opened in Nov. 2016 has significantly changed within the last couple of years.

I shop there ~once a week.