Moments after a Chittenden County sheriff’s deputy pulled over a Chevrolet Spark on a back road in Berkshire last month, the officer picked up his personal cellphone and texted a group of Border Patrol agents.
“Need one of you,” the text said.
Within the hour, a farmworker was in federal custody. He was later deported.
The act has led observers to question the act in lieu of Vermont’s Fair and Impartial Policing Policy, which bars local officers from aiding federal immigration enforcement.
So why was a Chittenden County deputy making a stop in Franklin County — more than 50 miles from home?
The answer lies in a federally funded program that has for years pulled the Chittenden department and others into Border Patrol’s orbit.
Operation Stonegarden, a program run by the U.S. Homeland Security, provides overtime and equipment to local and state police for northern border enforcement. While the program is overseen by Border Patrol, the local officers continue to work in their cruisers and wear local uniforms, acting as state officers.
Executive Director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council Christopher Brickell said that while patrolling the border, local police are still held accountable to everything that they would be required to do as a Vermont certified law enforcement officer.
“All statewide policies still remain in effect, regardless of what it is that they’re doing with Border Patrol,” he said. “If they’re acting as a Vermont law enforcement officer, then all of the statewide policies still remain in full effect.”
While Vermont’s original Fair and Impartial Policing Policy expressly exempted Operation Stonegarden and similar programs from its restrictions on local immigration enforcement, the state’s current policy no longer shows that exemption.
The change in policy raised questions about whether Operation Stonegarden’s federally mandated coordination with Border Patrol can be reconciled with Vermont rules that generally bar local officers from investigating unlawful entry, facilitating civil immigration detention or sharing a person’s location with federal immigration authorities.
Those questions gained urgency after the Chittenden County sheriff’s deputy, Sgt. Scott Costella, was on Stonegarden patrol last month and summoned Border Patrol to a traffic stop, helping the agents detain the farmworker.
Records obtained by Migrant Justice and shared with news organizations show that Costella’s explanation for calling Border Patrol changed after the county’s internal legal review. Costella’s initial account cited the remote location of the stop, the impending tow of the vehicle and his uncertainty about its occupants.
The final version described Border Patrol as “officer safety backup” and added that Costella was “unsure how they would react,” apparently referring to the occupants of the stopped vehicle.
“He doesn’t even try to contact state and local authorities, so even if he thought his physical safety was in danger, then the proper protocol would be to radio dispatch and see who is your closest backup,” said Will Lambek at Migrant Justice. “He didn’t do that. Those are not the actions of somebody who believes that they are at risk of physical injury.”
Chittenden County Sheriff Dan Gamelin said this was the first time he could remember in the 15 years the police department had been participating in the program of an incident like this one occurring with his officers or deputies.
“Our main duties when we work that program up there is criminal interdiction,” he said in reference to Chittenden’s participation in Operation Stonegarden.
However, in 2023, the sheriff’s office paid a $25,000 settlement to an immigrant farmworker after another deputy called Border Patrol during a 2019 traffic stop that resulted in his deportation. At the time, Operation Stonegarden was exempted from the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy.
“We cannot be involved in any immigration status or anything to do with immigration. We can’t ask questions about immigration,” Gamelin added. “We are all aware about the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy when we’re working up there.”
Recent updates by the council under the Vermont Attorney General narrowed local collaboration parameters and instead placed general prohibitions against warrantless detention or inquiring about immigration status without safety justifications.
“The only thing we focus on is the criminal activity that occurs on the border, including drug trafficking and gun trafficking and human trafficking,” Gamelin said, “We do not focus on immigration status.”
According to Costella’s statement, his action to call on Border Patrol for backup was not based on race or gender. He said police dispatch had informed him — and he later confirmed by phone — that the vehicle registration had expired.
Despite the restrictions on local police executing civil immigration duties, local and county agencies in Vermont, such as Chittenden County police, have continued to navigate overlapping federal border grant funds through Operation Stonegarden.
While the Vermont Attorney General’s Office helped in constructing the policy, the office acts merely as a consultant for the state criminal justice council, said Haley Sommer, senior advisor to Vermont’s Attorney General.
Sommer said the Attorney General’s Office did not have any role in investigating or settling allegations that individual officers have violated their agencies’ Fair and Impartial Policing Policy.
“The people of Vermont have been very clear that they do not want state resources aiding or abetting ICE and Border Patrol,” James Duff Lyall, executive director of Vermont’s American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement to VTDigger. “Still, we are still seeing examples of local police colluding with these lawless federal agencies as they continue to terrorize communities across the state.”
An internal review is being conducted into determining if Costella’s actions were in line with the policing policy, Gamelin said in a complaint filed with the Vermont Criminal Justice Council.
