Beaver County — Public commenters at the Beaver County Board of Commissioners meeting on Sept. 11, 2025, asked the board to explain the status and likely next steps for a 287(g) memorandum of agreement (MOA) the county sheriff submitted to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A resident identified at the meeting as “Resident (public commenter)” asked for an update on whether the sheriff’s office had been approved by ICE and what the county’s response would be once ICE returned the signed MOA. “Basically, I guess I'm interested in 1 in asking, well, what is the what is your board's intention once this agreement is in fact returned signed by ICE?” the resident said.

The board’s presiding official, identified in the transcript as “Commissioner (unnamed),” told the meeting the sheriff had signed and returned the MOA to Homeland Security and that ICE had not yet marked the county as approved on its public listing. “At this time, without hearing from the sheriff, I don't have any intention on putting that onto the agenda,” the commissioner said, adding that colleagues could request the item be added if they wished.

Why it matters: Delegations under 8 U.S.C. § 1357 (commonly called "287(g)") allow ICE to enter cooperative arrangements with local law enforcement. Those arrangements can vary in scope; at the meeting a commenter summarized three ICE models discussed publicly: a task-force model, a warrant-serving model and an incarceration-related model, and said the sheriff had requested the task-force model.

Meeting discussion and clarifications

Meeting speakers and commenters described the current status as administrative and pending federal action. The commissioner said that once the sheriff receives ICE’s signed documents he had invited the sheriff to speak publicly at a work-session meeting to explain the sheriff’s intended uses of the authority. “After my last special to share, the board met the sheriff, I asked him once he receives the sign IOU to then publicly come here and address the board on what his intentions are with being part of the 2 8 7 g plan,” the commissioner said.

County officials also raised implementation concerns the board would consider if the MOA is returned. “We have a lot of concerns with whether or not we'll be covered under our insurance policy,” the commissioner said, noting potential liability if sheriff’s office personnel were involved in accidents or caused harm while operating under any new authority.

Process and next steps

Commission staff said the matter would appear for public discussion at a Wednesday work-session meeting once the sheriff is available to present and staff can publish the agenda. The commissioner told the resident to leave contact information with the clerk so staff could notify interested members of the public when the item is scheduled. “We have every every Wednesday at 10. If you leave your information with Nikki or Nicole, our chief clerk here, that that does whenever whenever it gets signed, we could notify you that there'll be an open discussion regarding the 2 87 g file,” the commissioner said.

No formal board action was taken at the Sept. 11 meeting. The commissioner said the board had not placed the MOA on a voting agenda and would await the sheriff’s presentation and any additional information from Homeland Security before deciding whether to seek public comment or a vote.

What remains unclear

Meeting participants recorded that the county’s MOA status on ICE’s public site showed a “link pending” listing for the Beaver County Sheriff's Office as of Aug. 28, 2025, but speakers did not provide an ICE-supplied approval date. The transcript also records a public commenter referencing CCAP (the County Commissioners Association) in connection with broader litigation or advocacy matters, but no formal legal action or board directive on that point was recorded at the meeting.

The board’s next public meeting is scheduled for Sept. 25, 2025, at 10 a.m. in the Commissioners' Public Meeting Room; the 287(g) discussion was described as likely to come before a Wednesday work session if and when the sheriff is prepared to present.