"This year, this campaign for the office I just assumed, got national attention because of one issue that in reality has nothing to do with the duties and responsibilities of the sheriff's office," Ceisler told a crowd gathered inside the Bristol Theater, which drew resounding applause.
Ceisler was speaking of defeated Republican incumbent Fred Harran's decision to sign a cooperation agreement with ICE through the federal government's 287(g) program. The program allows local law enforcement agencies to carry out certain federal immigration duties in the community.
"Bucks County is a common-sense place, so when they saw the sheriff of Bucks County aligned with the Trump administration on its mass deportation agenda, I'm not surprised that they rejected it so overwhelmingly," Ceisler told Action News.
Hours before Ceisler's swearing-in, an ICE officer fatally shot a woman during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis, MN. Video of the incident shows agents ordering the woman, later identified as 37-year-old Renee Good, to exit her vehicle before she drove forward. Shots were then fired and the car crashed.
READ MORE | 37-year-old-woman killed in ICE-involved Minneapolis shooting identified
In the aftermath, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey delivered a blunt rebuke to federal officers, saying, "To ICE, get the f*** out of Minneapolis."
Federal authorities said the officer fired in fear for his life, an account disputed by local officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said an agent's vehicle had become stuck in the snow, and they "were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and attempted to run them over and ram them."
Frey pushed back, saying, "They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is b---t."
Protests followed in Minneapolis, with video showing demonstrators clashing with law enforcement, throwing snowballs at vehicles, and tear gas being deployed into crowds.
The shooting and its aftermath resonated in Bucks County, where immigration enforcement operations had been a defining issue in the sheriff's race. Reacting to news of the Minneapolis incident, Ceisler said he was not surprised.
"When you have absolutely overzealous law enforcement who are clearly not well trained on the rules of engagement, which I saw the video, that certainly appears to be the case in Minneapolis," Ceisler said, "you're gonna have incidents like this."
Minneapolis does not participate in 287(g), but Harran's decision to opt into the program, which he previously called "common sense," became a central focus of the campaign and is widely believed to have contributed to his defeat. Ceisler has said he plans to end Bucks County's participation in the program "prudently and responsibly."
"We're going to make sure we're still able to deport violent criminals who have received due process," Ceisler said, "but we're not going to go rounding up cooks and gardeners and laborers and people who are here just because they want the same quality of life that we do."
Ceisler argued that the program made the county less safe.
"We had large swaths of our community here in Bucks County, who were afraid to call the police, who are afraid to report crime and that makes everybody less safe," Ceisler said.
"I had leaders in the Latino community here in Bucks County tell me that nobody they knew had called 911 since Sheriff Harran announced the partnership with ICE. When people were in dangerous situations, they were afraid that the police weren't going to protect and serve them, but that they were going to deport them and that is absolutely unacceptable."
Good was reportedly a U.S. citizen and a legal observer of federal actions in Minneapolis, and was not a target of an ICE-related arrest.
A request for comment from the Bucks County Republican Party was not returned on Wednesday.