Bucks County's newly sworn-in sheriff is terminating his predecessor's agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and making other changes to his office's policies on immigration.

Democratic Sheriff Danny Ceisler, who took office last week, announced Wednesday that he is immediately terminating the Bucks County Sheriff's Office's 287(g) agreement with ICE. Under the county's "task force model" agreement, struck under former Sheriff Fred Harran, the department's 16 officers were given authority to carry out immigration enforcement duties in the county.

Ceisler pledged during a contentious election campaign that he would end the 287(g) agreement immediately. Harran was also sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups last spring over the agreement. The groups said the Republican former sheriff entered into the agreement without authorization from the Bucks County Commissioners, and the commissioners later voted to disavow the agreement.

Despite a judge siding with Harran, Ceisler said the agreement was never implemented. Harran said Wednesday's announcement was a political stunt.

"My intentions were only to utilize it for individuals that were here illegally that had committed a crime and received their due process," Harran said.

In remarks on Wednesday, Ceisler argued the agreement was making Bucks County residents less safe by discouraging immigrant communities from reporting crime out of fear of deportation or detention. That fear puts others at risk, he said.

"When large numbers of our residents are afraid to call 911, or afraid to come to court and testify, that makes our entire community less safe. This is not a public safety problem for immigrants; this is a public safety problem for everyone," Ceisler said.

Ceisler said his department will continue to share information with ICE, which will still have access to the county jail. But the sheriff's office will not target people living and working in the community.

"We are continuing to maintain an open dialogue with ICE and all our federal and state law enforcement partners. By any definition of a sanctuary county, we are not one," Ceisler told CBS News Philadelphia.

Ceisler has also signed an order prohibiting sheriff's officers from asking residents about their immigration status.

Heidi Roux, an immigrant from El Salvador who became a U.S. citizen, said she saw the fear firsthand. 

"There's so much fear already, a baseline fear, that all this did was fuel and increase that fear to a point where people were not comfortable leaving their homes," Roux said. 

The goal is to reduce that fear, Ceisler said.

The decision comes as ICE and local law enforcement's role in immigration enforcement is top of mind for many across the country. One week ago — the same day Ceisler took office — an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, an American citizen, after a traffic stop in Minneapolis.

"ICE is not trained to be doing law enforcement out in the streets," Ceisler said, when asked about the shooting after his swearing-in ceremony. "When you put people who aren't trained and equipped to do that job, that's when mistakes happen, and people get hurt." 

The Justice Department has since declined to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Good, a decision that was widely criticized and led to the resignations of several federal prosecutors in Minnesota and in the civil rights division.