A handful of people at Wednesday’s Butler County commissioners’ meeting questioned the agreement between the sheriff’s office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the federal budget impact.

Sheriff Mike Slupe signed an agreement June 23 to work with the agency on immigration enforcement. Slupe has said his office won’t make an arrest without a warrant.

The public comments came Wednesday, July 9, after the commissioners were asked if they were going to discuss the agreement.

“I haven’t seen the agreement … I don’t know what it entails,” said Commissioner Kevin Boozel.

Leslie Osche, commissioners’ chairwoman, said Boozel was given a copy of the agreement.

“I understand, but I wanted Mike to explain because the first I’d seen it or heard about it was in the paper. He didn’t come up and talk to us about it and it wasn’t brought up in public comment,” Boozel said.

Osche said Slupe brought it up during a Butler County Prison Board meeting, and Boozel said he didn’t attend that meeting. The prison board’s last meeting was June 17.

Contacted after the meeting, Slupe said he sent emails containing copies of the agreement to all three commissioners on July 1.

Catherine Lalonde, chairwoman of the Butler County Democratic Committee, said she understands people who are in the country illegally are breaking the law, and President Donald Trump said gang members and criminals would be targeted.

Instead, federal authorities have targeted laborers and restaurants looking for people living in the country illegally, Lalonde said.

She said potential deportees do not receive due process, and families are being separated in the enforcement effort.

“The idea of sending some to South Sudan or some other third world country, it’s just cruel,” Lalonde said.

Deportees should be sent to their home countries, she said.

She said a friend of hers, a Puerto Rico-born U.S. citizen with dark skin and a Spanish accent, has begun carrying her passport with her at all times and is “terrified.” Lalonde called for a humanitarian approach to enforcement.

She also said there must be excess money in the sheriff’s department budget to cover the cost of deputies working with the agency.

Another resident said immigration enforcement is the federal government’s job and the agreement exposes the county to liability.

She said the agreement wasn’t on the meeting agenda and wondered how the agreement came to be.

Charles Tanner asked the commissioners to consider whether taxpayers would condone the use of deputies, at the county’s expense, to work with the agency.

After the meeting, Slupe said deputies who work with the agency will do so as a regular part of their duties. While their salary is coming from the sheriff’s budget, the deputies’ worker’s compensation is covered by the agreement.

Deputies will participate with the agency if there is paperwork for the arrest or detention of a person in the country illegally, as they would for a person wanted by the county on a warrant, he said.

He said he doesn’t know how many undocumented people are in the county.

“Up to, they’re saying, 20 million illegals have come into our country,” Slupe said, comparing that number to the state’s population of a little over 13 million. “So ICE is overwhelmed.”

He said the agreement is a boiler plate agreement the agency uses with other sheriff and police departments.

“The agreement allows me to do what I want to do or not do. If it was a contract then I would be bound by what’s in the contract,” Slupe said, contrasting the difference between an agreement and a contract. He said a contract would require approval from the county commissioners.

In August or September 2023, he said he signed an agreement with the U.S. Capitol Police for services “if I can and want to.”

Slupe also said nearly a dozen deputies have volunteered to work with the agency.

“The more training the better,” he said. “The more understanding of the law the better.

“We don’t want to violate anybody’s rights. They’re illegals. We need to get them in front of some judicial process,” Slupe said.

Ann Baker, of Butler Township, she wants the county to develop a plan to help residents who will lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits due to spending reductions in the federal budget. She called the budget bill the “big horrible bill” mocking what Trump named the Big Beautiful Bill.

She said in the 16th Congressional District, 18,498 people will lose Medicaid and 8,751 will lose SNAP benefits.

“Hospitals will decline because they’re not able to get those Medicaid dollars to continue on. So a lot of our are hospitals will be forced to close. They’re already running into some red ink,” Baker said.

Carolyn Steglich, a Harrisville resident and board member of the Mercer County Adult Education Center in Grove City, said the budget is leaving the center in the same situation as adult education providers in Butler County. She said 90% of the center’s funding comes from U.S. Department of Education and Pennsylvania Department of Education.

She said the board cut the center’s budget by about a third due to federal spending reductions. The result is closing or reducing services, reducing hours for teachers and support staff.

“The real losers are our students who come to us for assistant in their quest to improve their credentials for a new job or opportunities for further education or just to complete something that’s meaningful to them personally,” Steglich said.

She asked the commissioners to put pressure on those who control the money.

“If this is not a priority for the (Department of Education) and the (Pennsylvania Department of Education) then their priorities are not meeting community needs,” Steglich said.