white and red car on road during daytime
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Sheriff Danny Ceisler canceled his office's coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after it became clear that it increased public safety problems.
"So what we saw in Bucks County, and really across the country, is when you mix local law enforcement with immigration enforcement, that torches the relationship between immigrant communities and law enforcement," said Ceisler."And we rely on those communities to call 911 to report crime, to come into the courthouse and testify," he noted.
"And we saw a decrease in all of that cooperation, which isn't just a public safety problem for those immigrants. That's a public safety problem for the entire community."
Despite law enforcement cutting cooperation, Bucks County is not a sanctuary county in the state.The sheriff is an elected post, he noted, and while campaigning, what he witnessed was that the overwhelming majority on both sides wanted the same thing.
"They want a secure border. They want actual, bona fide criminals who have received due process to be deported, but they don't want the people who are here because they want the same quality of life as us, who are paying taxes, who are really lifting up the community in ways that we don't even see," he added.
Sheriff Ceisler added that he has no concerns that the county will become less safe after this move."So we have had this kind of level of cooperation with ICE for decades, where ICE does its work. And if we have people in our custody, we turn them over," he said. "But when you're a law enforcement executive like I am, you have limited resources. I only have so many deputies, and we have our office's mission. We have our responsibilities. So I need my deputies focused on their work."