Public safety or politics?

It’s been a month since Bucks County Democrats assumed control of the remaining half of elected row offices they didn’t already control. This shift was significant, as among the offices they took were sheriff and district attorney. This means the county law enforcement apparatus is completely in Democrats’s control for the first time in anyone’s memory.

The “new sheriff in town” wasted no time canceling an agreement the sheriff’s office had with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to assist in the apprehension of criminal illegal immigrants. In doing so, the new sheriff wasn’t executing policy to keep Bucks County safer. He was merely executing national Democratic immigration policy which can be summed up as, “Resist, because… Trump.”

Before the 2025 election, Republican former Sheriff Fred Harran, entered into a 287(g) agreement with ICE. Under section 287(g), which was adopted during the Clinton administration, any state and local law enforcement agency can assist with the “investigation, apprehension or detention” of illegal aliens, as well as transport them to detention facilities.  Under Pennsylvania law, county sheriffs are in charge of holding and transporting prisoners awaiting trial, and they serve warrants. Generally, county sheriffs do not investigate crimes, which is the job of police forces.

Sheriffs are natural partners to help uphold our immigration laws, especially with the current administration’s emphasis on finding illegal immigrants who are committing other crimes. They already have custody of convicted and alleged criminals. They actively serve warrants which the court has issued. The 287(g) agreement merely allowed qualified individuals in the sheriff’s office to determine a suspects immigration status and notify ICE. In most worlds, this is considered coordination between law enforcement agencies.

The new sheriff, Danny Ceisler (D), however, sees it differently. Ceisler believes public safety is better served when the sheriff’s office doesn’t coordinate with immigration authorities. During a press conference held about a week into office, Ceisler advocated, in effect, that softening enforcement against persons who have committed crimes while in the country illegally is better for public safety than proactively informing ICE of these people’s whereabouts, especially while they are in custody. He suggested the fear of law enforcement created in the immigrant community outweighed the presence of actual criminals in the community. Ceisler also stated that he would not honor ICE detainers, even though these detainers do not require any active law enforcement presence in the community.

A neutral observer might say that pure politics drove this decision more than any concern for public safety. Ceisler, a lawyer whose father is a nationally known political consultant and whose mother is a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge, was flanked by Democratic County Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie. Ellis-Marseglia made national news in November of 2024 when she voted contrary to Pennsylvania law during election certification proceedings stating that “precedent by a court doesn’t matter.” Harvie is running for Congress and is looking to shore up support in the May Democratic primary. Both supported a failed lawsuit against Ceisler’s predecessor in which a county judge found that the sheriff had authority to cooperate with federal officials. Like a good politician, Ceisler has stated that his office will cooperate with ICE in limited, targeted ways, and made assurances that Bucks County is not a sanctuary county. In a swing county like Bucks, Ceisler demonstrated his political skill in attempting to demonstrate it was really no big deal that he was canceling the 287(g) agreement.  It was no big deal, even though he called a press conference, and his political allies actually supported a lawsuit to cancel the agreement.

County officials may be courting trouble. According to data by the Prison Policy Institute, jurisdictions that do not cooperate with ICE see most immigration enforcement activities through community enforcement operations, in locations such as workplaces, homes and public places.  To the contrary, states like Florida and Texas see the vast majority of immigration enforcement occur in their jails, with the suspect already apprehended and under control. The conclusion from this data is fairly obvious: State and local jurisdictions that collaborate with immigration authorities see fewer immigration operations in their communities. Because the criminals who are subjects of these operations are transferred to federal authorities while they are already apprehended, there is less danger to the law enforcement officers, less danger to the suspect, and less danger to the community at large. As we have seen in Minneapolis, when immigration enforcement is moved to the communities, self-righteous civilians can get involved, suspects are more likely to be armed and dangerous, and law enforcement is put in more danger. State and local cooperation with federal authorities makes everyone safer.

Thankfully, so far Bucks County and the Philadelphia suburbs have been spared the violence in other areas. As the sheriff leads immigration authorities away from cooperation with county offices and forces them into our towns, hopefully we won’t see the same outcomes we have seen in other states that refuse to coordinate their approach to a national problem.

Don Petrille is an attorney and served as Bucks County’s register of wills from 2012 until 2020.