Bucks County Sheriff Cuts Ties With ICE Program

Bucks County Sheriff Danny Ceisler signed an order Wednesday terminating the office’s partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the 287(g) program.

The move fulfills a campaign promise the Democrat made during his election bid. However, it doesn’t mean the office and county government won’t work with ICE.

The sheriff, who took office last week, announced the decision at a press conference outside the Justice Center in Doylestown Borough. He was joined by Bucks County Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie, both Democrats, along with immigrant rights activist Heidi Roux.

“After careful evaluation, I have determined that the public safety costs of this ICE partnership are greatly outweighed by any potential public safety benefits that this partnership may offer,” Ceisler said.

The 287(g) program, which dates back to President Bill Clinton’s administration but has been more widely used during President Donald Trump’s administrations, allows local law enforcement agencies to become deputized to perform immigration enforcement. The program can take three different forms: jail enforcement, warrant service, and task force models, according to public records.

Ceisler’s predecessor, Republican Sheriff Fred Harran, chose the task force model last spring, which grants the broadest authority to local law enforcement. Under the model, officers can stop, interrogate, and detain anyone they believe is in the country without current authorization.

Harran said he didn’t plan to conduct immigration raids, but wanted access to ICE-connected databases and federal training.

“That expansive task force model is the one that my predecessor chose for this office,” Ceisler explained. “Pursuant to that agreement, 16 deputies received that expanded immigration authority.”

The program was never fully implemented due to a court case that stayed the process.

The case was resolved a week before the November election, but Harran never fully activated the program before leaving office.

The case involved a lawsuit from the Make the Road States Inc., NAACP Bucks County Branch 2253, Buxmont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and county resident Juan Navia. They alleged the 287(g) agreement would lead to warrantless searches, arrests and detentions of county noncitizens, harm community relations with law enforcement, and involve an illegal diversion of taxpayer money. They also alleged the agreement required approval from the Bucks County Commissioners, who filed a crossclaim.

Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Trauger ruled in Harran’s favor, but several other parties appealed.

After Ceisler took office, Trauger issued an opinion to the appeals court denying and dismissing the appeal of his ruling.

The appeal has been sent to a state court and remains active.

Ceisler said his decision was motivated by feedback from immigrant community leaders who reported that residents had become afraid to call 9-1-1 or report crimes since the partnership became public.

“One leader in the Latino community who wasn’t able to make it today reported to me that not a single member of their community had called 9-1-1 or felt comfortable reporting a crime since this partnership became public,” Ceisler said. “They feared that local law enforcement responding to a crime they reported would take them too.”

Bucks County is home to over 50,000 immigrants, including those from India, South Asia, and Latin American countries, as well as Liberia and Ukraine.

Heidi Roux, speaking as a Bucks County resident and immigrant, said the community was “breathing a collective sigh of relief” after the announcement.

“People feared, not only feared calling 9-1-1, they feared coming into the courthouse to pay parking tickets,” Roux said. “They feared any and all collaboration with local law enforcement.”

Roux, who was born in El Salvador but is now a U.S. citizen, said she fits the criteria that ICE uses to question individuals, which includes appearing to be of a different race, speaking Spanish or another foreign language, and working a low-wage job.

“I fear speaking Spanish with my son in public now,” she said.

Ceisler told reporters gathered that ending the 287(g) partnership does not make Bucks County a “sanctuary county.”

“We are not a sanctuary county. We are continuing to maintain an open dialogue with ICE and all of our federal, state and local law enforcement partners,” Ceisler said.

The think tank, Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for low immigration, classified Bucks County as a “sanctuary county” under its own definition starting more than a decade ago. The Trump administration has not previously accused Bucks County as being a “sanctuary” for those in the country illegally.

Ellis-Marseglia, the chairperson of the commissioners, said Bucks County is not a “sanctuary” jurisdiction.

The sheriff’s office will continue to cooperate with ICE in specific circumstances, as has been an agency practice for decades.

The Bucks County Department of Corrections will continue sharing information with hundreds of law enforcement agencies, including ICE.

When someone is detained and booked, their fingerprints obtained through the LiveScan program are distributed to law enforcement agencies nationwide, which lets ICE and other agencies to identify individuals with outstanding warrants.

“ICE will continue to have access to our jail as it always has, and we will continue to honor judicial orders to hold criminals who are already incarcerated through the standard judicial processes,” Ceisler said.

The sheriff doesn’t run the county jail, but his office works closely with it. The Bucks County Correctional Facility is overseen by the commissioners and a Prison Oversight Board.

Ceisler said his office does not honor ICE detainers but will honor judicial orders and warrants, which is a legal precedent set by the Galarza v. Szalczyk case from Lehigh County.

Ceisler signed an additional order prohibiting deputies from asking crime victims, witnesses, or court observers about their immigration status during any interaction with the office.

While this wasn’t the office’s previous practice, the measure aims to reassure residents who had been hesitant to cooperate with law enforcement, Ceisler said.

“To the members of our immigrant communities, you are safe to call 9-1-1. You are safe to report crime and you are safe to come into this county courthouse and testify,” Ceisler said.

The sheriff said he would ensure that “actual criminals” involved in human trafficking, fentanyl distribution, child exploitation, violent crime, and fraud who are in the country illegally continue to be deported through existing processes.

When asked about potential federal response to his decision, Ceisler said he had not received any communication from the Trump administration about increased ICE activity in Bucks County.

The termination process was straightforward and required only a two-sentence order that was sent to ICE, the sheriff told this news organization.

Ceisler noted that as a federal law enforcement agency, ICE has no obligation to inform the sheriff’s office about its activities in the county.

The 287(g) program was a central issue in the sheriff’s race, drawing national attention to what is typically a low-profile local election.

Several of Ceisler’s supporters stood at the press conference and cheered when he announced his decision.

Ceisler said voters delivered a clear message by electing him over his Republican opponent.

Recently, Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, a Democrat, called ICE “fake, wannabe law enforcement.” She added that the agency should stay away from the city, which drew a harsh response from conservative commentators.

The Philadelphia Police Department later put out a statement relaying that it handled policing and not the sheriff’s office, which is led by an elected official.

“She marches to the beat of her own drum,” Ceisler said, adding her message was “counterproductive.”

Ceisler stated that the city sheriff stepped on the toes of police and couldn’t arrest ICE agents if she wanted to do that.

“I understand that many people are angry, but we all have our role and responsibility,” Ceisler said. “As a law enforcement executive, what she did is not it.”