Bucks County Sheriff Danny Ceisler announced the official end of the partnership.
On Wednesday, Bucks County Sheriff Danny Ceisler announced the end of the department’s partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Sheriff’s Office cited fears within the community, specifically among the immigrant population.
Ceisler held a press conference outside the Bucks County Justice Center on North Main Street in Doylestown to make the announcement.
“After careful evaluation, I have determined that the certain public safety costs of this ICE partnership are greatly outweighed by any potential public safety benefits that this partnership may offer. That is why this morning I signed an order terminating the 287(g) partnership between the Bucks County Sheriff’s Office and ICE,” said Sheriff Ceisler.
In April of 2025, then Sheriff Fred Harran announced the plan for his office to partner with ICE under the 287(g) agreement. The goal of the plan was to allow local law enforcement agencies to become deputized to perform immigration enforcement.
“The 287(g) program dates back to the Clinton administration but has been far more widely used during the Trump administration, particularly during the second Trump administration, as a method to assist in the administration’s stated goals of deporting over one million men, women and children per year,” said Ceisler during Wednesday’s press conference.
Ceisler explained that the 287(g) partnership “allows officers to stop, interrogate and detain anybody who they believe is in the country without current authorization.”
Harran defended the partnership as a way to keep communities safe by targeting individuals charged with crimes in Bucks County.
“What is so bad about making the arrests, which we do now, but now, afterwards, ship them out so they can’t commit crimes tomorrow? Because our courts, our judicial system, our prisons are packed. They cannot hold the amount of people. So why not save the U.S. taxpayer dollar and ship them back to the country they came from? Only those people that have already been charged with a crime. I’m not talking about somebody owning a pizza shop or working a landscape company. That’s not who we’re talking about here,” said Harran.
Harran lost reelection to Sheriff Danny Ceisler in the Bucks County sheriff’s race.
Ceisler assumed office on January 5.
Along with terminating the partnership, Ceisler signed an additional order prohibiting his deputies from asking crime victims, witnesses, or court observers about their immigration status.
“We will ensure that actual dangerous criminals who are in the country illegally are deported, which has been standard practice in Bucks County for decades,” Ceisler said. This was what Harran’s partnership with ICE was working to achieve.
The move to sever the partnership comes as the Trump administration ramps up efforts to secure the U.S. border and remove violent criminals that are residing in the country illegally.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “This announcement will only make law-abiding Bucks County residents less safe. Jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE simply let illegal criminals roam their streets. These types of actions won’t stop ICE and the federal government from enforcing the law, they will only make it significantly more challenging to get dangerous criminal illegals off American streets and put innocent Americans in harm’s way.”
