A Bucks County judge is expected to decide next month if the sheriff can implement a controversial program that grants county deputies the power to act as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Following a second four-hour hearing Friday, Sept. 26, Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Trauger indicated that he hoped to issue an order before the end of October, ahead of the Nov. 4 general election.
Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran, a defendant in the lawsuit, is seeking reelection. The Republican incumbent, a retired Bensalem director of public safety, is running against Democratic challenger Danny Ceisler, an attorney and a U.S. Army veteran.
Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran listens as members of the community speak for and against a pending partnership agreement between Harran’s office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, during a Bucks County Commissioners meeting Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
The hearing Friday was a continuation of a Sept. 16 proceeding regarding a lawsuit filed earlier this year seeking to prevent the implementation of the ICE program, known as 287g, which gives local law enforcement agencies authority to enforce immigration law while performing routine duties.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Community Justice Project sued Harran and Bucks County on behalf of immigrant and civil rights organizations. They’re seeking a preliminary injunction to halt implementation of 287g until the court decides the lawsuit’s merits.
Defendant Bucks County has also filed a cross claim against Harran seeking to nullify the 287g agreement on the grounds that Harran applied for the program without approval from the county commissioners.
The Pennsylvania Sheriffs’ Association, a professional organization, has also filed a claim as an interested party. Bucks County is among 10 county sheriff offices with approved 287g programs, according to the latest federal data.
In a surprise development Friday, Harran’s attorney, Wally Zimolong, produced ICE paperwork that Harran signed July 3. The paperwork appears to limit the scope of powers that Harran and his 16 deputies could exercise under 287g agreement.
These documents were significant because in the earlier hearing Harran testified that he didn’t request a modification of the ICE agreement limiting its scope of authority, and that it was unnecessary because he could choose what parts he wanted to follow and ignore the rest.
At the Sept. 16 hearing, Trauger repeatedly urged the parties to reach a compromise limiting the scope of the 287g agreement based on what Harran testified he planned to do, but nothing has materialized.
When Harran was questioned about his previous testimony that he didn’t change the agreement, Harran said that he had forgotten about it.
In another new development, Harran testified that ICE recently notified him that the federal government would begin reimbursing local government expenses, including equipment and officer salaries and overtime related to 287g activities.
Previously, the feds only paid for officer training and left local governments responsible for covering all other costs for the program.
Under cross-examination, however, the sheriff said that he would have to apply to seek reimbursement and that this might require approval from county commissioners.
Harran also repeated his assurances that deputies wouldn’t be checking the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses or individuals at the Bucks County Justice Centeron civil matters, such as child support or protection from abuse petitions.
But he said they’ll screen criminal defendants against names in the ICE database to see if they’re wanted for immigration law violations.
Detainer paperwork would be prepared for defendants identified as being in the country undocumented, but the responsibility for issuing the detainer will rest with ICE agents, not deputies, Harran said. If ICE approves a detainer, deputies would transfer the person to a detention facility.
“I know what I’m doing and what I intend to do,” Harran added. “We are not stopping and interviewing, that’s not my job. It’s ICE’s job.”
But what Harran said he’d do under the ICE agreement versus what he’s permitted to do under the broad authority of the agreement has surfaced as a recurring central theme in the case before Trauger.
Two Bucks County residents, who are Latino, testified Friday that the looming possibility that county deputies could act as ICE officer has resulted in fear and suspicion within local immigrant communities.
Heidi Roux, director of immigrant justice for the Welcome Project PA, speaking at a May 7, 2025 press conference outside the Bucks County Justice Center in Doylestown Borough. The rally was in opposition to a then-pending partnership agreement between the Bucks County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Karen Rodriguez, a member of Make the Road PA, one of the lawsuit plaintiffs, testified that she’s changed her behaviors since learning that Harran joined the 287g program, even though she is a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico.
She said she’s stopped attending festivals celebrating Latino heritage in Bucks County and avoids large group activities.
Rodriguez also testified that she no longer attends a Sunday Spanish-language Mass at a Bristol church fearing that she could be detained in an ICE raid. She added other Latino congregants have stopped attending the Mass.
“The members there have the fear,” she said. “People are terrorized right now.”
Bucks County resident Heidi Roux, a U.S. citizen who was born in El Salvador, testified that she has stopped speaking Spanish in public, and that she is more conscious now about how she dresses.
Recently she also told her son to keep a Spanish language book he’s reading at home, fearing it could make him a target for racial profiling.
Roux, the director of immigration justice for The Welcome Project PA, testified that she has received death threats over her vocal opposition for 287g, though she did not report them to local police.
Over the last few months, Roux testified that she met with Harran four times to talk about the 287g program, and to urge him to rescind participation.
Under questioning, Roux described her relationship with Harran as cordial, calling him a “frienenemy.” She also testified that she doesn’t believe the sheriff would racially profile her.
“He said I don’t have to worry about it because I look Italian,” Roux said.
But she’s less confident about how deputies will interpret the scope of their authority.
“This is not an a la carte menu,” Roux added. “You ordered the whole menu and now you’re only ordering the pancakes.”
Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County’s ICE 287g program is being challenged in court