Speak Your Piece: Bucks County Commissioners vs. Sheriff Harran
ICE is in the news again – in Bucks County.
One day after the primary election and during a county commissioners meeting, it was Bucks County’s Democratic commissioners vs. Sheriff Fred Harran.
It began with Harran, a Republican, who filed an application a few weeks ago with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have his deputies join a federal task force, take training, and help ICE with certain immigration functions. And he recently was given the federal go-ahead.
The Democratic majority, Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie resisted early on, the American Civil Liberties Union threatened legal action, and partisans joined in the public outrage.
On Wednesday, however, Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie brought out the legal guns. In Pennsylvania, they argued, the county commissioners are the legitimate governing body and have sole power to enter into contracts, not department heads. It’s a state law.
That legal angle was reaffirmed by Bucks County Solicitor Amy Fitzpatrick, a Democrat and judicial candidate for the county Court of Common Pleas, during the commissioners’ meeting in Doylestown this week.
We discussed this dispute, and other things, on my WBCB 1490 talk show, Speak Your Piece. I came up with two questions: Where do the majority commissioners stand on collaborating with ICE? And does Sheriff Harran have a solicitor who could have warned him about the “powers” of county commissioners?
Harran, who spent nearly 40 years in law enforcement as a cop and chief in Bensalem, committed to upgrading deputy training and broadening some of the department’s duties after he took office in 2022.
The controversy stems from Republican Harran’s application to join ICE’s new task force that allows local law enforcement to help ICE in their mission to capture and deport criminal, illegal migrants — within certain parameters.
The program is tagged 287(g) and Harran’s office recently received approval from federal authorities allowing select deputies to perform certain immigration-enforcement functions usually reserved for federal agents.
Harran has said he didn’t plan to conduct immigration raids, but noted the county would benefit by improved access to federal databases, plus training for county deputies.
Also at the Wednesday meeting, GOP Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, who voted against the majority commissioners, said he trusted Harran and cited a 35-year professional relationship in Bensalem.
Nationally and locally, the controversy appears to be shaping up as a partisan issue. In nearby Montgomery County, Democratic Commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila H. Winder said they would not sign any collaboration agreements with ICE.
On its website, ICE reports they’ve signed more than 500 contracts under the 287(g) program with law enforcement agencies nationwide.
No recent comment was available from the sheriff’s office.
Pat Wandling hosts Speak Your Piece from which this commentary is adapted, weekdays at noon on WBCB 1490.
