Elizabeth Koromaus said she’s tired of her neighbors and community members being grabbed off the streets and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the help of county tax dollars.

“The people being grabbed are taxpayers. The people who are being taken away from us, from our community are the ones that are funding their own removal from the daily life of our town. This is not acceptable,” Koromaus said at a county commissioners’ meeting Wednesday, Jan 28.

Koromaus was among a handful of Butler County residents who spoke out at the meeting, days after continued ICE operations resulted in another person being detained at Ryan Homes at Park Place Townhomes in Cranberry Township.

Residents urged commissioners to terminate the cooperation agreement between the Butler County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was signed last summer.

The residents told the commissioners they believe ICE agents have used unnecessary force while conducting immigration enforcement and in dealing with protesters. Most said the agreement should be scrapped.

The commissioners did not respond to the comments. Sheriff Mike Slupe, who signed the agreement to assist ICE last June, was not at the meeting. The commissioners did not vote on the agreement at the time Slupe signed it.

Last June, residents spoke out both in support and against the agreement. It remained in effect after a judge ruled a similar agreement with the Bucks County sheriff in eastern Pennsylvania was legal.

Koromaus, of Cranberry Township, said she disagrees with that agreement. She said the sheriff and deputies took her neighbors into custody in a recent enforcement action.

A construction worker told the Butler Eagle on Jan. 22 that he saw ICE agents tackle a detainee who tried to run away during an operation near Park Place Townhomes.

Over the past year, ICE has led multiple operations in and around Cranberry Township. Last summer, ICE led raids on multiple Mexican restaurants in and around Cranberry, resulting in dozens of workers being detained by masked agents.

At the time, the restaurants did not know where the detained employees were being taken. Workers at one restaurant, Emiliano’s in Richland Township, Allegheny County, said agents trashed its kitchen, broke doors and emptied the refrigerators.

The Butler Eagle has had limited success in obtaining comment from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The residents also spoke out against ongoing federal immigration enforcement and the treatment of protesters in Minneapolis, Minn., where federal agents have shot and killed multiple civilians.

ICE raids have happened across Pennsylvania and the country over the past year, with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies.

Anthony Closkey, of Butler, told commissioners at least six people have died nationwide this year as a result of the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown. Thirty-two died last year, and 11 died in 2024.

“This will be remembered as a dark time not just in U.S. history, but all of human history,” Closkey told commissioner.

“The amount of violence coming out of Minnesota is so scary and frightening to me,” said Lori Wagner, of Butler, who said she recently relocated from Armstrong County.

“Some people, not that I know of our own officers, have behaved and acted in such violent, horrific ways,” Wagner said. “ … I hope to see people of all colors here and hear people talking at Walmart with accents and I’m fearful for them.”

Peter Donovan, of Forward Township, said he is concerned about the treatment of undocumented immigrants and “folks who look like they might be, could be undocumented immigrants.”

He said people afraid of others who look, talk, dress and cook differently than them can dehumanize immigrants and tolerate, and sometimes celebrate, violence against those people.

Instead of targeting the worst criminal immigrants, the administration has “unleashed a militia of masked, ill-trained, adrenaline-fueled thugs who are abusing anyone who just might be undocumented,” he said.

He asked the commissioners to work with the sheriff to “tear up” the ICE agreement, which he said is a “stain on our community.”

Brittney Scaccia, of Summit Township, said federal agents are treating citizens and people they detain who are exercising First and Second amendment rights with extreme violence.

“They are sending whole families to detention centers. Children, mothers whose worst offense is a civil immigration offense, violating their rights to due process,” Scaccia said.

She said she believes the county is at risk of being sued for the sheriff’s office’s involvement with ICE, and the time spent working with the agency takes away from the time the office spends on its duties in the county.

Other speakers expressed similar comments and also asked the commissioners to terminate the agreement.