Inside the Federal Program Paying NY Cops to Help Border Patrol Arrest Immigrants

New York leaders have vowed to prevent local police from assisting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. But they rarely mention a little-known federal grant program doing just that.

Since 2009, local law enforcement in New York have worked with Border Patrol through the program, Operation Stonegarden, to promote security along the state’s northern border by carrying out special overtime shifts. 

New York Focus learned that the program is also facilitating immigration arrests, despite Democratic leaders’ insistence otherwise. 

Our investigation, based on dozens of records requests, revealed that deputies on Stonegarden patrols have helped Border Patrol arrest at least 24 people for immigration reasons since 2023. 

Here are the key takeaways from our reporting:

Operation Stonegarden is engaging in immigration enforcement, despite claims to the contrary. 

Governor Kathy Hochul’s office, several sheriff’s departments, and the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, which administers Stonegarden, all told New York Focus that Stonegarden doesn’t facilitate civil immigration enforcement. That’s true in some counties, but not in others.

Deputies on Stonegarden patrols in Oswego and Jefferson County reported turning over 23 people to Border Patrol for immigration reasons from 2023 through May this year. Video footage obtained through records requests shows how some of those arrests unfolded in Oswego County. 

In one, a sheriff’s deputy pulls over a red truck and tells the driver he was “speeding a little quick back here.” Border Patrol agents are already on the scene, and the deputy bumps fists with one of them as he takes the driver’s license and registration back to his car. At the end of the video, Border Patrol agents lead two of the truck’s passengers into their van.

Governor Hochul vowed to restrict local cops’ collaboration with ICE. But she still supports Operation Stonegarden. 

Not long after Hochul signed into law a new measure banning formal agreements between New York law enforcement and ICE earlier this year, she issued a press release touting the $2.7 million headed to New York border counties via Operation Stonegarden.

After New York Focus shared key findings with her office — including the at least two dozen immigration arrests facilitated by deputies on Stonegarden patrols — a spokesperson issued a statement backing the program.

“Governor Hochul will always support local law enforcement in securing our borders and maintaining public safety, but this administration will not aid ICE in federal civil immigration enforcement or support attacks on New York communities,” the spokesperson said, without acknowledging that Stonegarden aids Border Patrol in immigration enforcement. 

Operation Stonegarden remains shrouded in secrecy.

When deputies complete a Stonegarden patrol, they fill out a “Daily Activity Report” that includes fields for the number of vehicle stops, penal code violations, and the total number of people turned over to Border Patrol. New York Focus filed records requests for these reports with each of the 13 border counties, but only five released records. 

Others claimed that only Border Patrol could release the records or that they no longer had access to them after submitting them to the Department of Homeland Security. Without those reports, it’s impossible to know what deputies did on their Stonegarden shifts. (Several of the counties that refused to release records, including Erie and Monroe, the largest on the border, told New York Focus that immigration enforcement is not part of Stonegarden’s purview.) 

Beyond the immigration arrests New York Focus tallied, records also describe deputies turning over an additional 21 people to Border Patrol without specifying why, raising the possibility that some were arrested for immigration violations.