Danny Ceisler, a 33-year-old Army veteran and Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican Frederick Harran for Bucks County sheriff by about 23,000 votes (an 11-point margin). Ceisler campaigned on ending the county’s controversial 287(g) Task Force partnership with ICE, arguing local immigration enforcement undermines public safety and erodes trust in immigrant communities. The agreement, which trained 17 deputies, drew protests and an ACLU lawsuit; a court upheld it in October, but voters ousted Harran. Ceisler cannot stop ICE operations but plans to bar locally trained deputies from participating in immigration enforcement when he takes office in January.
Democrat Danny Ceisler Ousts Republican Sheriff in Bucks County, Vows to End ICE 287(g) Partnership
Danny Ceisler on the campaign trail in Bucks county, Pennsylvania.Photograph: Courtesy Danny Ceisler
About 40 miles north of Philadelphia, Bucks County — long billed as one of Pennsylvania’s most decisive swing counties — elected Democrat Danny Ceisler to replace incumbent Republican Sheriff Frederick Harran in a race that became a focal point of the national debate over local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Ceisler, a 33-year-old Army veteran who worked at the Pentagon and in Governor Josh Shapiro’s administration, ran on a pledge to terminate the county’s 287(g) Task Force partnership with ICE. He won by roughly 23,000 votes — an 11-point margin — defeating Harran, a law-enforcement veteran of more than three decades.
What the 287(g) Task Force Model Means Locally
The 287(g) agreements allow local and state officers to assist federal immigration enforcement to varying degrees. The Task Force Model adopted by Harran authorized deputies to question people about their immigration status and make immigration-related arrests in some encounters, including traffic stops. Harran said the program was not fully implemented while a lawsuit was pending and acknowledged that 17 officers had received training under the agreement.
“I don’t regret doing it,” Harran said, defending his decision to sign the agreement. “With the new sheriff you’re going to have a lot of problems in Bucks County,” he added.
Why the Issue Mattered
Critics argued the arrangement would harm public safety by diverting deputies from core duties and by intimidating immigrant communities, reducing willingness to report crimes. Community advocates protested outside the county courthouse, and the ACLU of Pennsylvania sued, arguing 287(g) programs open the door to racial profiling and civil-rights violations. A court ruling in October upheld the agreement, but voters nonetheless removed Harran in the following election.
Ceisler said his priority will be restoring trust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement. He acknowledged he cannot stop ICE from operating in Bucks County but said he will prevent locally trained deputies from participating in immigration enforcement activities once he assumes office in January.
Broader Political Context
Ceisler’s victory was part of a broader set of Democratic gains in the county: voters elected the county’s first Democratic district attorney since 1965 and gave Democrats a majority on the school board. Local reporting suggested voters were weary of culture-war battles and focused on public-safety and community-trust issues. Bucks County remains politically competitive — Biden carried it in 2020 and Trump won it in 2024 — and these results were watched as a bellwether for how immigration enforcement policies resonate at the local level.
Background on 287(g)
The 287(g) program was created by Congress in 1996. Concerns about racial profiling and civil-rights violations led to reduced reliance on 287(g) in the 2010s, and it was later revived by the Trump administration. Since that revival, more than 600 287(g) agreements have been reported across 34 states; federal data show 49 agencies in Pennsylvania have signed such agreements.
Local Communities React
Bucks County has more than half a million residents, about 70,000 of whom are foreign-born. Immigrant communities are concentrated in distinct parts of the county: the southern area near Philadelphia has a large Latin American population and thousands of Ukrainians who arrived after Russia’s 2022 invasion; central Doylestown includes mixed Asian and Latino neighborhoods; the northern, more rural areas rely heavily on immigrant labor for agriculture.
Heidi Roux, director of The Welcome Project, described the chilling effect she and local advocates observed: immigrants fearful of deportation were sometimes reluctant to call police, even when they were victims of crime. “We have heard of domestic-violence victims afraid to call the police because they might end up being deported,” Roux said. “Calling 911 can become an act of extreme courage.”
As Ceisler prepares to take office in January, his win is likely to intensify national attention on the local balance between public-safety priorities and cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
