A Jefferson County sheriff\u2019s deputy was patrolling near a strip mall in Watertown, 30 miles south of New York\u2019s border with Canada, last December, when he spotted a Chevrolet cargo van. He noted three traffic violations: failing to turn on headlights, signaling improperly before making a turn, and driving with cracked glass.<\/p>\n
The deputy, Shawn Bulger, stopped the vehicle and learned that the driver, a 52-year-old man, was a native of Brazil. He had a Pennsylvania driver\u2019s license; his passenger was carrying a Brazilian passport. The deputy recorded in sparse detail what happened next: He called a Border Patrol officer \u201cwho came to assist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth individuals were detained and transported to BP Station for deportation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
The call to Border Patrol wasn\u2019t necessary to address the alleged traffic violations, and it had nothing to do with any state crime. But that day, it was very much part of the county deputy\u2019s job. He was conducting a special overtime patrol as part of his agency\u2019s participation in Operation Stonegarden, a federal program that pays local law enforcement to work with US Border Patrol.<\/p>\n
A New York Focus investigation has found that in some counties, the program has turned local cops into occasional immigration agents. Available records show that New York sheriff\u2019s deputies on Stonegarden detail have reported turning over at least 24 immigrants to Border Patrol since 2023, mostly after traffic stops. That\u2019s likely an undercount; the records are sourced from five of the 13 participating counties, and New York Focus\u2019s tally does not include an additional 21 people whom deputies turned over to Border Patrol for reasons they did not explain in their reports.<\/p>\n
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In some New York state counties, Operation Stonegarden has turned local cops into occasional immigration agents. Screenshots: Oswego County public records request. Photo: Darren McGee \/ Office of Governor Kathy Hochul. Illustration: Leor Stylar and Alex Arriaga.<\/p>\n
Since 2009, a few years after the program launched on the US\u2013Mexico border, Stonegarden has funneled tens of millions of dollars to the state\u2019s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, which has doled out about $30 million to New York\u2019s border counties for local deputies and police to conduct traffic stops and patrol marinas and trails. The counties also use Stonegarden funds to buy equipment, particularly surveillance technology like automatic license plate readers.<\/p>\n
Several sheriffs told New York Focus that Stonegarden patrols have nothing to do with immigration enforcement, focusing instead on drug interdiction or preventing human trafficking. But at least three counties have used the funds to assist in immigration arrests, records show.<\/p>\n
The revelations come as New York leaders vow to combat President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign. Earlier this year, the state enacted legislation banning a controversial type of formal partnership between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as a 287(g) agreement. Passed under the banner \u201clocal cops, local crimes,\u201d the measure was a response to concerns that local police were assisting federal agents with immigration arrests.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sending a strong message to ICE: You will not weaponize local police officers against their own communities in the state of New York,\u201d Governor Kathy Hochul\u00a0said in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet the measure Hochul signed into law left local cops<\/a> free to work with immigration agents outside of 287(g) agreements, including through lesser-known programs like Operation Stonegarden.<\/p>\n State Senator Andrew Gounardes, who\u2019s among a group of legislators pushing for a broader ban on local collusion with immigration agents, said New York Focus\u2019s findings regarding Stonegarden show why stricter policies are necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we should push for more guardrails and more answers to these questions, and ask why local police are being funded to turn people over to the federal government based on the suspicion that they\u2019re here without status,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n State Senator Rachel May, whose Syracuse-area district includes a sliver of Lake Ontario, described the program as potentially \u201can end-run around what we were trying to do\u201d by banning 287(g) contracts.<\/p>\n Hochul and other Democrats have boosted<\/a> Stonegarden, this year touting the $2.7 million award as part of millions in federal funding to \u201csupport counterterrorism and emergency preparedness efforts.\u201d The governor\u2019s public statements about the program don\u2019t mention immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n In response to New York Focus\u2019s findings, a spokesperson for Hochul\u2019s office said in a statement that the governor \u201cwill always support local law enforcement in securing our borders and maintaining public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis administration will not aid ICE in federal civil immigration enforcement,\u201d the statement said. The spokesperson did not acknowledge that through Operation Stonegarden, local police are assisting Border Patrol \u2014 like ICE,\u00a0part\u00a0of the Department of Homeland Security \u2014 with exactly that.<\/p>\n The federal government paid Jefferson County just over $800 for the 10-hour shift during which a deputy stopped the Brazilian man in Watertown, records show. The form the deputy completed to document his work that day included fields for number of vehicle stops, penal code violations \u2014 and total number of people turned over to Border Patrol.<\/p>\n The driver, who asked to be identified by his last name, Martins, told New York Focus that he and his brother-in-law had just left work at a construction site for a lunch break when the sheriff\u2019s deputy pulled him over. He did have a cracked windshield, he said, but insisted he had signalled appropriately and didn\u2019t need to turn on his lights because it was midday.<\/p>\n \u201cHe simply approached me so he could call Border Patrol,\u201d Martins said.<\/p>\n Border Patrol agents showed up within 10 minutes, he said. Bulger didn\u2019t write him a ticket,\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n Bulger did not respond to a request for comment. Jefferson County Sheriff Peter Barnett did not respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment.<\/p>\n Martins, who had lived in the US for almost five years and was in the process of appealing a deportation order, wound up detained by ICE in the Broome County Jail for two months before a federal judge ordered a bond hearing. He was released on a $50,000 bond in early February; his family had to borrow money to pay it.<\/p>\n To keep up with payments, Martins works from 7:30 am to 8 pm almost every day at a construction site in Maryland, he said. His months-long detention was wrong, he believes, in part because of how it started, with a traffic stop on a cold winter day.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt at that moment that my constitutional rights were being violated,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt that it was almost illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheriffs paid to \u201csecure \u2026 borders\u201d<\/p>\n Every border county in New York receives funds through Operation Stonegarden, in amounts ranging from $100,000 to $325,000 this year, plus $90,000 for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.<\/p>\n Stonegarden\u2019s funding for overtime patrols is meant to give deputies time and resources to help Border Patrol \u201csecure U.S. international borders,\u201d according to the counties\u2019 contracts with the state. Deputies on a Stonegarden shift aren\u2019t supposed to respond to regular calls involving local crimes unless necessary. Instead, they keep an eye on the interstates and state roads that run toward Canada, as well as waterways and trails near the border. They submit \u201cdaily activity reports\u201d to the Department of Homeland Security to document each shift.<\/p>\n In Jefferson and Oswego counties, those reports show that deputies have helped detain\u00a0at least 23 immigrants\u00a0since 2023. Chautauqua County deputies turned over at least\u00a0one person to Border Patrol in 2023. The records do not indicate that the people apprehended had recently crossed over into the United States.<\/p>\n In written responses<\/a> to New York Focus\u2019s questions, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said that Border Patrol has not directed departments participating in Stonegarden to enforce immigration law. At the same time, he wrote, department policy calls for contacting Border Patrol when officers encounter undocumented immigrants during criminal investigations or arrests.<\/p>\n Documents and video footage obtained by New York Focus show how some of the arrests unfolded.<\/p>\n On April 1, 2025, Oswego County Deputy Michael Fera summarized his shift with the line: \u201cTurned over 8 illegal immigrants to USBP.\u201d<\/p>\n Body camera footage from that day shows a deputy pulling over a red pickup truck near a church in Fulton, New York.<\/p>\n \u201cYou took like a big winding right, then you were just speeding a little quick back here,\u201d the deputy says. The driver tells him that he and his passengers \u2014 all men in work clothes \u2014 are on their way to a construction job.<\/p>\n As the deputy walks back to his vehicle, holding the man\u2019s license and registration, he crosses paths with a Border Patrol agent.<\/p>\n \u201cSup, man,\u201d the deputy says. The two men bump fists. At the end of the 23-minute video, Border Patrol agents lead two of the truck\u2019s passengers into their van.<\/p>\n That same day, an Oswego County deputy conducted another traffic stop that resulted in Border Patrol detaining several more\u00a0people on their way to work<\/a>, including a man named Antelmo Labato. In an incident report, Fera wrote that he had been patrolling with a Border Patrol agent when they arrested Labato.<\/p>\n The agent later told him that Labato had a 15-year-old US citizen son who would have no other guardians once Labato was deported, the deputy wrote. He contacted the county Department of Social Services so they could look for a foster family for the boy, who eventually joined his father in Mexico. Fera declined to comment.<\/p>\n Many of the immigration arrests initiated by Oswego County deputies, including Labato\u2019s, were previously\u00a0reported by Syracuse.com<\/a>. Last year, the attorney general\u00a0opened an investigation<\/a> into the Oswego County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s interactions with federal law enforcement involving immigration. The office declined to comment about Operation Stonegarden and told New York Focus it had no updates on its investigation into Oswego.<\/p>\n Oswego County Sheriff Don Hilton did not respond to emails and phone messages requesting comment. Last year, he told the Oswego Palladium-Times that a small fraction of traffic stops his deputies conducted resulted in a call to Border Patrol. Half of those calls involved an ongoing criminal investigation, and the other half were to ask federal agents for translation help, he said. Syracuse.com<\/a> reported earlier this year that the sheriff\u2019s office said its deputies had conducted no stops with federal agents in 2026.<\/p>\n In another body camera video, an Oswego sheriff\u2019s deputy pulls over a white box truck with expired registration and discovers that the two men inside, who only speak Spanish, lack driver\u2019s licenses. He calls a tow truck to take the vehicle they\u2019re not allowed to drive \u2014 and a Spanish-speaking Border Patrol agent to \u201cexplain the tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n The men waited nearly an hour for the agent to arrive. Local police in New York are allowed to contact federal agents to report that they suspect someone of being in the country illegally, but they can\u2019t detain people for civil immigration offenses \u2014 like overstaying a visa \u2014 without a warrant. That includes situations where police hold someone longer than needed to process their criminal charges so immigration agents can arrive to pick them up, Attorney General Letitia James wrote in 2020.<\/p>\n When the agent finally arrives, he describes the traffic violations, then asks the men what countries they\u2019re from and if they have documents to be in the US. The video doesn\u2019t capture their full answers. The agent then pats the men down and directs them into his car.<\/p>\n \u201cGood to go, bro,\u201d the agent says to the Oswego deputy after he shuts the door.<\/p>\n Eleven of the Stonegarden immigration arrests that New York Focus identified took place in Jefferson County, a summer travel destination bordering Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.\u00a0Deputies reported turning over an additional 17 people to Border Patrol without specifying why they did so.\u00a0Three of the confirmed immigration arrests took place in the first five months of 2026, the most recent timeframe for which New York Focus obtained records.<\/p>\n \u201cThree subjects turned over to Border Patrol after a traffic stop on state Route 177 in the Town of Adams,\u201d a deputy wrote after a Stonegarden detail in April.<\/p>\n An Operation Stonegarden daily activity report from December 2025 shows a Jefferson County sheriff\u2019s deputy surveiling a construction site.<\/p>\n The records show that Jefferson County deputies have also assisted Border Patrol agents with surveillance, sharing information about vehicles of interest with the agency\u2019s Targeting Unit, which identifies people to arrest. On December 30, 2025, one officer spent 90 minutes surveilling a construction site in Watertown.<\/p>\n Sheriffs deny taking part in civil immigration enforcement<\/p>\n Sheriff\u2019s departments in five counties told New York Focus that their agencies\u2019 work with Stonegarden doesn\u2019t involve immigration enforcement. That includes the two largest border counties in the state, Erie and Monroe. (Neither county agreed to make agency leaders available for interviews, and an Erie County Sheriff\u2019s Office spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions.)<\/p>\n Instead, the departments said, the fund supports efforts to deter crime across an international border that receives far less attention than its southern counterpart.<\/p>\n \u201cA civil immigration thing \u2014 that\u2019s not what we do,\u201d said Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck. \u201cWhat we are concerned with is, is there some type of criminal activity connected to our border? Human trafficking, someone running guns or drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to questions from New York Focus, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said that Stonegarden enables to state and local law enforcement to \u201cjointly enhance security along the United States land and water borders.\u201d<\/p>\n Quattrone said that in Chautauqua County, the funding has been particularly useful to help his agency patrol Lake Erie and respond to marine emergencies. The resources Stonegarden provides are useful for boating accidents and search-and-rescue missions as well as working with federal partners \u201cwhen activity on the lake raises legitimate border-security concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n Records show that officers have spent much of their time during Stonegarden patrols conducting traffic stops that result only in citations. Some mention undercover purchases of illicit drugs or marijuana seizures. Deputies described participating in boat patrols on Lake Erie and snowmobile patrols on trails in the North Country. Many reports include lines like, \u201cNo suspicious activity was observed.\u201d<\/p>\n New York Focus obtained daily activity reports from Cayuga and Wyoming counties that showed deputies on Stonegarden details recorded no immigration arrests.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not enforce immigration laws in Wyoming County, and that is not part of that detail whatsoever,\u201d said Undersheriff Colin P. B. Reagan. \u201cWe\u2019re not asking about citizenship, we\u2019re not asking anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet with little oversight from the state, the program has sometimes resulted in the kind of formal working relationship between New York law enforcement and immigration agents that state leaders have vowed to halt.<\/p>\n The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services said that Stonegarden funding \u201csupports the fight against terrorism and transnational crime.\u201d After New York Focus shared the key findings in this story, an agency spokesperson said that Stonegarden is \u201cnot related to civil immigration enforcement so we do not track or deal with immigration issues in the management of the grant program.\u201d<\/p>\n Demands for greater scrutiny<\/p>\n In New York and nationally, Operation Stonegarden has largely flown under the radar, in part because it\u2019s relatively small compared to other federal law enforcement programs, costing less than $100 million annually. A 2017 report<\/a> by the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Office of Inspector General found weak oversight of Stonegarden spending and little effort to measure what it was actually achieving.<\/p>\n \u201cBorder Patrol is unable to accurately depict how border security has been enhanced by program funds,\u201d the report noted.<\/p>\n Many of the daily activity reports reviewed by New York Focus contain few details. Sometimes, officers reported conducting no stops of any kind during a Stonegarden shift.<\/p>\n In Chautauqua County, where deputies frequently reported patrolling local beaches and marinas and talking to community members, one report appeared to satirize uneventful shifts.<\/p>\n \u201cOn today\u2019s tour I showed up with a half unbuttoned shirt, dirty boots, and coppehagen in my mustache,\u201d\u00a0said a report filed\u00a0in May 2023, referring to a brand of dipping tobacco. \u201cI sat around for about an hour and a half. I drove to Hanover and got a cup of coffee and a doughnut. I went to sunset and stared at the beach for about 3 hours. Then I drove to Pizza Village and ordered \u00bd turkey sub, slice of pizza, deep fried mushrooms, and a root beer. I then drove to Ripley for another chew and a nap, by that time it was 2300 and I was $450 less broke, end of tour.\u201d<\/p>\n Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone told New York Focus that the report was completed by someone other than the deputy under whose name it was filed \u201cas a practical joke.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow it ended up in the official files I do not know,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe individual who completed the report has been dealt with appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our free weekly newsletters<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Since President Trump returned to office, officials and residents in some counties have criticized the program for potentially opening the door for local police to conduct immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Last year, seven Monroe County legislators\u00a0voted against\u00a0<\/a>accepting Stonegarden funds. This year, the grant drew more opposition, and activists who oppose local collaboration with immigration authorities launched a campaign to try to defeat it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognize that other law enforcement agencies across the country may elect to use this agreement to assist the federal government with immigration enforcement,\u201d Monroe County Sheriff\u2019s Office Chief Deputy Michael Fowler wrote to county lawmakers last month. \u201cHowever, our law enforcement powers are granted by NYS and we must follow NYS law. Therefore, we are prohibited from Immigration enforcement duties by NYS law.\u201d<\/p>\n On August 11, the legislature voted 17\u201312 to accept the funding.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Disinformation-Event-Graphics-IP-article.png\"\/)
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