Aidan Tyksinski contributed reporting to this article.
The Bucks County Commissioners don’t have much say when it comes to Sheriff Fred Harran’s decision to partner with ICE and its controversial 287(g) “task force model.” Nevertheless, this is the exact issue which took center stage and dominated the meeting – even before it started.
Leaders from Immigrant Rights Action, NAACP Bucks County, Make the Road Pennsylvania, CASA Pennsylvania and the ACLU of Pennsylvania held a press conference before the meeting started to express why the sheriff-ICE partnership – simply put – is a bad idea.
“We ask that 287(g) be rescinded and we ask that our Sheriff’s deputies do not become ICE agents,” said Immigrant Rights Action Executive Director Heidi Roux.
Roux, who facilitated the press conference, went on to speak about how this would irreparably damage trust between the local immigrant community and law enforcement.
“We have worked long and hard to ensure that our communities have a wonderful relationship with our law enforcement through community policing and community building,” she added. “This will completely burn that bridge. We support the sheriff’s effort to catch more criminals, and we believe that the only way to do that is if everyone that lives in Bucks County is comfortable reporting crimes.”
READ: ICE Deports Immigrant Mother of an Infant and 3 Children Who Are US Citizens
NAACP Bucks County President Adrienne King noted the 287(g) program’s long and well documented history of enabling racial profiling and discriminatory policing – which is why the Obama administration had suspended it.
“This program opens the door of racial profiling and unjust detentions and the criminalization of immigrant families who already live in fear,” said King. “It will tear communities apart, discourage victims and witnesses from cooperating with law enforcement, and ultimately make Bucks County less safe for everyone.”
Immediately following the press conference, concerned residents attended the Bucks County Commissioners’ meeting to ask questions about how the sheriff’s plan could affect the county budget and taxpayers. But not everyone opposed the sheriff’s plan to make about a dozen of his deputies defacto ICE agents if this agreement with ICE is finally ratified. Bucks County residents are as divided as the nation is. With public comment stretching to more than 90 minutes – or triple the allotted time for a regular commissioners meeting – speakers reflected a microcosm of America’s divided politics.
Bob Harvie, Jr., chairman of Bucks County Commissioners, said the county has cooperated for several years with ICE agents without a 287(g) agreement.
“That process is already in place” to hand over undocumented individuals who have been arrested in Bucks County to ICE, Harvie said.
Under the current arrangement a nationwide database checks outstanding arrests and warrants for anyone arrested in Bucks County. Those who are arrested and found to be undocumented are handed over to ICE.
Support for – and opposition to – Sheriff Fred Harran’s ICE 287(g) application was fairly evenly split among those who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting. Bucks County Beacon reported Harran’s application April 22 in a news exclusive.
READ: ICE Targets Businesses and Restaurants Across DC
“Taxpayers should not have to pay for immigrants here illegally. Thank you, Fred Harran, for trying to do your job and keep us safe,” said Barbara Didomenico of Warrington.
“As a Bucks County resident and tax payer I thank Sheriff Harran for cooperating with ICE through the 287(g) ICE agreement. The sheriff made it abundantly clear if a criminal is apprehended and found to be in this country illegally it would be reported to ICE. Immigrant Rights Action, NAACP of Bucks County, Make the Road PA, CASA and the ACLU are advocating for illegal aliens who have committed crimes. Do they not care about the safety of Bucks County residents? Is there some financial incentive for them to be protesting this law-and-order directive? America is a great country, and we welcome immigrants but they have to come in legally,” said Fran Haller of Newtown.
Harran recently told Patch, “It is only for individuals already in custody based on criminal charges and outstanding Bucks County warrants. It is not, and will not be, used for immigration sweeps, random checks, or broad enforcement. Our policies explicitly prohibit such practices.”
Efforts to locate a written policy were unsuccessful. In addition, numerous attempts to reach Sheriff Harran Wednesday to clarify and to receive an actual copy of the policy went unanswered. Of the three levels of local law enforcement available under the 287 (g) partnerships, Harran applied for the most aggressive of the three which allows certified local law enforcement to execute roundups and raids.
In fact, the Miami Herald published an explainer of ICE’s 287(g) “task force model,” which notes it “allows officers to challenge people on the street about their immigration status — and possibly arrest them … [and] state and local officers are trained and deputized by ICE so they can question, detain and arrest individuals they suspect of violating civil immigration laws while officers are out policing the communities they are sworn to protect.”
Chris Poli of Buckingham Township argued the 287(g) partnership would cost time and resources, take deputies away from their local duties “and has the potential to cost Bucks County residents” if it was enacted.
Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said while ICE reimburses the county for deputy and sheriff training, no other costs are reimbursed.
“Regarding 287(g) we will have to carry the insurance for that, and we have a $500,000 deductible for any sheriff incident – whether they have an incident with someone they stop or with an employee. That’s a half a million dollar deductible on every single incident. I have to take that into account,” Ellis-Marseglia said.
In October, 2021, a New Jersey man who was suspected of being an illegal immigrant and mistakenly held in a Lehigh County jail for three days settled his lawsuit against Lehigh County for $95,000, Allentown-based The Morning Call reported. As a result, Lehigh County opted out of a policy of holding suspected illegal immigrants for the federal government, the report said.
“I’m here to speak against the sheriff’s political stunt to align the department with ICE. This policy goes against what the people expect from our elected officials,” said Doyelstown’s Joe Frederick.
Monica Flint of Newtown, an immigrant and 35 year “proud citizen” said while no one wants people who have committed serious crimes to remain in the U.S., she is not “here to defend people against brutal crimes.” Flint is concerned over rule of law abuses, a lack of due process and fast-track deportations to places like Louisiana State Penitentiary a “maximum security prison farm” and the Center for Terrorism Confinement, a notorious “mega” prison in El Salvador.
Lower Southampton Township’s Sally Schlotter accused former President Biden of what she considered “tantamount to treason” for not securing the border. “Those illegal aliens that came flooding through were complicit in breaking federal law, thereby making them detainable,” she added.
READ: Central Bucks Community Grapples with the Specter of ICE Raids at Local Schools
“I’m here to protect the sheriff, too, from a slippery slope,” said Steve Nolan, a Newtown resident and U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan.
“The analogy here is the Geneva Convention and leadership. This is constitutional,” Nolan said.
Doylestown resident and Vietnamese immigrant and American citizen Rose Hanh Yuan said Bucks County is a desirable place for many to live. Part of the appeal is its welcoming atmosphere – and perceived safe neighborhoods.
“The image we project matters. As a real estate professional if Bucks County becomes known as an ICE county…people will not want to move here,” Hahn Yuan said.
If the ICE partnership is confirmed, she noted Visit Bucks County “would look very different. Tourists, conference planners and future home buyers will not want to move here” while property values could be negatively impacted.
Harvie said a recent Visit Bucks County report ranked tourism as a top industry, generating 8.4 million visits from those “traveling 50 miles or more to get here” and generating about $1 billion in economic tourism value.
Ellis-Marseglia urged those in attendance at the meeting to “leave in peace.”
“I’m a supporter of ICE. They have a job to do. I also am a supporter of our sheriff, the sheriff’s job is important. They are keeping people in that courthouse safe, they are keeping our judges safe … we just want ICE to do ICE and sheriff to do sheriff,” Ellis-Marseglia said.
The May 7, 2025, commissioners meeting recording is available on its website.
