The Signal

From Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to Bucks County’s Fred Harran: Why ICE 287(g) Partnerships Are Dangerous, with Jessica Pishko

2025-05-28

Jessica Pishko is a journalist and lawyer with a JD from Harvard Law School and an MFA from Columbia University. She is the author of The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy. She has been reporting on the criminal legal system for a decade, with a focus on the political power of sheriffs since 2016. In addition to her newsletter Posse Comitatus, her writings have been featured in The New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The Appeal, Slate, and Democracy Docket. She has been awarded journalism fellowships from...

Jessica Pishko is a journalist and lawyer with a JD from Harvard Law School and an MFA from Columbia University. She is the author of The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy. She has been reporting on the criminal legal system for a decade, with a focus on the political power of sheriffs since 2016.

In addition to her newsletter Posse Comitatus, her writings have been featured in The New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The Appeal, Slate, and Democracy Docket. She has been awarded journalism fellowships from the Pulitzer Center and Type Investigations and was a 2022 New America Fellow. A longtime Texas resident, she currently lives with her family in North Carolina.

She joins us today to talk about the ICE 287g program partnering with a growing number of sheriffs departments across the country, including right here in Bucks County, as well as how this development fits within the history of Sheriffs in the United States.

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READ:

Exclusive: Sheriff Fred Harran Enlists Bucks County in Trump’s Nationwide Immigration Crackdown
Bucks County Commissioners Meeting Packed with Residents Fired Up Over Sheriff’s ICE Agreement
ACLU Says Sheriff Fred Harran Must Get Bucks County Commissioners’ Approval for Future Partnership with ICE
It’s Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran Who Owes the Jewish Community an Apology for His Disingenuous Accusations of Antisemitism
ICE Approves Bucks County Sheriff’s ‘Task Force Model’ Partnership, ACLU Lawsuit ‘Forthcoming’
Republican Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran Calls Local Critics of ICE Agreement ‘Liars’, ACLU ‘Lunatics’
Bucks County Commissioners Vote to Set the Record Straight That the Sheriff Lacks the Legal Authority to Partner with ICE
Ballooning Number of ICE Partnerships with Sheriff’s Departments — Like in Bucks County — Leaves Immigrants and Advocates Worried

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Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music.