Bucks sheriff and ICE collaboration is official; legal challenge expected

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Immigration Customs and Enforcement’s collaboration agreement with the Bucks County Sheriff’s Office is officially approved.

The arrangement, under ICE’s 287(g) program, allows ICE to train deputies from the sheriff’s office to serve and execute arrest warrants for immigration violations, among other provisions.

Stephen Loney, senior supervising attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told WHYY News that they will be “challenging the sheriff’s unilateral decision to enter into this agreement” without county commissioners’ approval.

“Sheriffs under Pennsylvania law have limited authority granted by statute. They are not independent agencies,” Loney said. “Any agreement that the sheriff wants to enter into has to be approved by the governing authority of the municipality. In this case, that’s the county commissioners. They’ve not voted to approve this.”

The organization outlined its concerns in a letter to Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran published Monday.

Harran did not respond to a request for comment.

The agreement was met with both pushback and support from Bucks residents at a commissioners’ board meeting May 7.

Opponents argue collaboration with ICE damages public safety and community trust, leads to racial profiling and drains already limited local resources. Democratic Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia also highlighted liability concerns.

Supporters say the agreement will improve public safety by facilitating the deportation of people who commit crimes and do not have a legal residency status.

Harran previously told WHYY News after the May 7 commissioners’ meeting that the office would only alert ICE about people who have committed a “serious” crime and have “an active warrant for their arrest.”

“We’re not talking about traffic violations, we’re not talking about public drunkenness, we’re talking about misdemeanors,” he said. “And we’re not going on raids, we’re not going on calls and checking people’s immigration status or car stops or any of the other crazy stuff that people said.”

Loney said the ACLU of Pennsylvania would have “remaining concerns” with the agreement even if county commissioners voted to approve a 287(g) contract with ICE, related to what he described as the federal agency’s “lack of due process [and] retaliation against people for expressive activities.”

“People who express certain types of views are much more likely to get disappeared by ICE,” he said.

In neighboring Montgomery County, Democratic Commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder announced this week that they would not sign any collaboration agreements with ICE.

According to the ICE website, as of Friday the agency has signed more than 500 contracts under the 287(g) program with local law enforcement agencies nationwide.