Springfield Borough Bans Swimming at Rolling Green Park After Anti-Immigration Rumors

Darby Creek in Delco’s Rolling Green Park is a shallow, sunlit stream with gravel banks, sheltered from the road by a canopy of trees.

For years, when the area got too scorching, people would get in the water or bring inner tubes to swim. It was a local, illegal swimming spot — until the commune officially banned swimming there earlier this summer.

The ban had practical reasons: no lifeguards, no water quality control, no changing rooms and bathrooms.

But the neighborhood conversations that sparked it also revealed a menacing subtext. Fears and rumors about undocumented immigrants swimming naked in the creek and leaving trash behind echoed on social media and took up long sections of public comment during Delaware County Council’s weekly meetings. The County Council doesn’t manage the city park, but residents directed their anger there anyway, threatening council members with violence.

“It just took on a life of its own,” said Jim Byrne, Springfield borough attorney, who insisted the swimming ban nothing to do with immigrants and he never did.

The entire episode showed how the specter of illegal immigration consumes residents and lawmakers even thousands of miles south of the border, and even areas of public life that seemingly have nothing to do with it.

On a recent muggy afternoon, Darby Creek was peaceful. Giana Pasquay, 19, and her friend Lucy Baker, 20, sat on a rock by the water, listening to Amy Winehouse on a speaker in their shoes. Both grew up in Media and graduated from Penncrest High School; Pasquay had been swimming in the creek since the ban was passed. She had a theory about why it was passed in the first place.

“It’s not the stream,” Pasquay suggested. “It’s the people they care about.”

“There is no truth to this rumor”

Residents began flocking to Delaware County Council meetings this spring when the county proposed building a 16-bed mental health facility on the site that had housed Don Guanella, a home for developmentally disabled men. The county ultimately decided not to pursue the project because of financial concerns.

However, the issues raised in this debate were a harbinger of things to come.

Charlie Alexander, a general contractor and Marple resident who frequently addresses “concerned citizens” on TikTok, Facebook and X, has rallied some residents to oppose Don Guanella’s plan by falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants would be housed at the facility. Some of Alexander’s claims echo those of Donald Trump, who has frequently campaigned on the “invasion” of the southern border and an escalate in violent crime caused by immigrants that is not supported by evidence.

Alexander and others the residents were also absorbed a popular Republican Party liethat migrants are crossing the border to vote illegally in U.S. elections. The threat of non-citizens voting has been repeatedly overthrown.And Brennan Center for Justice Report In the 2016 election, it was found that in 42 jurisdictions across the country, including those with the highest percentages of non-citizen residents, election officials estimated 30 incidents of suspected foreign voting involving 23.5 million votes, or 0.0001 percent of the votes cast in 2016 in those areas.

But concerns that undocumented immigrants are taking advantage of Delco’s resources have become so widespread that the Delaware County Council issued an official press release in March titled, “Rumors about the former Don Guanella Property housing immigrants are untrue.” (Since March, the council has issued three press releases dispelling those concerns gossip about immigration (in the district.)

“There is absolutely no truth to this rumor” the announcement stated“We encourage residents to be cautious of rumours circulating on blogs and social media.”

Yet the rumor continued to circulate.

At an April meeting, a resident told the Delaware County Council, “I was also told by one of the people from Marple that the county would lie about this so that illegal immigrants — immigrants, newcomers, whatever you want to call them — could be housed there.”

Soon after, Alexander turned to what he saw as a related concern. He said on social media that he had seen white vans in the county that he believed, without evidence, were involved in human trafficking. He created a Facebook group where he encouraged members to take and share photos of “suspicious vans, buses and vehicles.” He began posting grainy photos and videos of people walking through Rolling Green Park and wading through Delco creeks, alongside close-ups of trash and knives on the ground that he said were left by migrants.

The Inquirer could not independently verify the photos. Alexander assumed the people were undocumented immigrants based on the photos and videos, which is not an true way to determine someone’s status.

“People are seeing more illegal immigrants, just overnight over the last two months, just showing up in Delaware County. And then these vans picking people up and dropping them off. And then out of nowhere you start seeing naked people in the creeks? That’s when it explodes,” he said.

The idea that Delco’s immigrant population is “illegal” is a powerful political rallying cry, experts say, but it sheds little airy on people’s actual status in the incredibly intricate immigration system. Legal status is a continuum that can take years to develop and can’t be determined by looking at someone or hearing someone speak Spanish, said Cathryn Miller-Wilson, executive director DECORATIVE Pennsylvaniawhich provides legal and social services to immigrants and refugees in the state. (HIAS PA is one of Alexander’s recurrent targets.)

Supporters say anti-immigration criticism has become commonplace for Spanish-speaking immigrants in Delco, whose population has grown significantly since the start of the pandemic.

“I’m hearing an increase in the feeling of unwelcome. Not necessarily threats, but the tone of voice, the refusal of service. Just a general feeling of ‘don’t come in here. You’re not welcome,'” said Layla de Luria, executive director Community Support Centera direct-service organization founded by Latina immigrant women in Delco. “Parents tell me stories of trying to take their kids to the park, panicking, turning around, and taking them straight home.”

De Luria said the tense national rhetoric seems to be fueling it. Delco is historically red but has been controlled by Democrats since 2020. At county council meetings this spring and summer, residents have sometimes threatened officials.

“Don’t make good people do bad things, because we will.” – Howard Alexander of Broomall he told the council in April“We’ll be there with pitchforks and torches, hot tar and feathers.”

“It had nothing to do with immigrants”

In June, the Springfield borough, which manages Rolling Green Park, adopted a up-to-date resolution special meeting of the board of commissioners. From that time on, “there will be no bathing or swimming in city parks.” Shortly thereafter, the municipality erected up-to-date signs on the banks of the stream, informing about this rule. The city police announced that “increased presence“to monitor violations.

For some local officials, the ban was clearly a response to a practical problem. Byrne, the Springfield Township attorney, said that since June, “there have been about 20 calls from the police department” about problems with the creek. (The police department referred The Inquirer to Byrne.) He said township officials enacted the ban for benign municipal management reasons.

“I’ve heard people say that, but it had nothing to do with immigrants,” Byrne said. He said borough commissioners and police have heard complaints about vast groups at streams, holding up water to swim, bathing, changing in full view of the public and using the restrooms on the banks. Park crews have found trash and overflowing trash cans when they go to immaculate them up, he said.

“Anyone can come to the park and use it within the park rules,” Byrne said. “That’s why we built the park.”

Even after the municipal authorities banned swimming in local parks, many residents showed up by July 3 Delaware County Council Meeting to air their grievances, many of which concerned illegal immigration and local streams. The complaints continued throughout July.

“You’ve got to stop this immigration. You’ve got to pass a law, throw these people out of our country. They’re swimming in our streams, naked,” said Marple Township resident Gary Ryder.

Although Rolling Green Park is outside her jurisdiction, Delaware County Councilwoman Christine Reuther also saw the creek as a practical matter. People need places to chilly off during the scorching summer months. But the creeks aren’t unthreatening — there are no lifeguards and the water quality isn’t tested. She said she’s contacted county officials about the unlikely possibility of a public pool at Ridley Creek State Park.

“They really locked it down”

Regardless of the intentions of officials, the bathing ban in the commune was justified.

“I want to commend Springfield Township, especially their police department. They really shut it down,” Alexander wrote on X in July.

In the days that followed, he changed the subject again, sharing conspiracy theories that the CIA was trying to kill Donald Trump and posting a video on the former Don Guanella in which he woke up a man sleeping in a UHaul and asked him if he was involved in human trafficking. (“You watch a lot of TV,” the man said, adding that he was simply homeless and trying to sleep somewhere where no one would bother him).

Darby Creek remained placid. The creek was shallow enough at Rolling Green Park one afternoon to see rocks and petite fish swimming along the bottom. Pete Zangari, 9, was fishing on the bank. His mother, Rebecca Zangari, had taken him to the park once a week from her home in Clifton Heights since he fell in love with fishing in early summer. Birds chirped in the muggy air.

Zangari had seen a lot of people swimming in June, the start of a summer of record-breaking heatwaves, and had just noticed the up-to-date “No Swimming” signs. She didn’t like them.

“It’s one way to cool off without having to pay for anything,” she said. “People should be able to cool off. It’s water.”