Bucks County sheriff cuts ties with ICE, igniting backlash and praise across the region

✅ Bucks County's new sheriff says he will end the county’s participation in an ICE program

✅ The move fulfills a central promise of Danny Ceisler's campaign

✅ Ceisler was sworn in hours after an ICE agent shot a woman in Minneapolis

The newly elected Bucks County Sheriff says a program that provides special training for deputies from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement will come to an end by the end of the month.

Much of Democrat Danny Ceisler's campaign against Republican Fred Harran was focused on his making the department part of ICE's 287(g) program, which provides specialized training for deputies assigned to a task force to better identify unauthorized immigrants. The Democrat successfully tied Harran to the Trump administration's immigration policy, leading to a 55%-44% win.

During his swearing-in on Wednesday night at the Bristol Theater, Ceisler followed through on his promise to sever the county's ties to the program.

"My predecessor volunteered to deploy county resources to aid the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda," Ceisler said after being sworn in during a ceremony. "Thousands of our neighbors here in Bucks County, both documented and undocumented, are living in justified fear of detention and deportation."

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National ICE shooting adds urgency and controversy

The former military intelligence officer took his oath of office hours after ICE agents shot a woman in Minneapolis, a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Wednesday’s incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over.”

"ICE is not trained to be doing law enforcement on the streets. And when you put people who aren't trained and equipped to do that job, that's when mistakes happen and that's when people got hurt," Ceisler told CBS Philadelphia after the ceremony.

Critics of the 287(g)  program told TAP into Doylestown they were concerned it would allow deputies to ask anyone about their immigration status.

"We're going to make sure that we are still able to deport violent criminals who have received due process, but we're not going to go rounding up cooks and gardeners and laborers and people who are here just because they want the same quality of life that we do," Ceisler told 6 ABC Action News.

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