BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont police officers are working overtime shifts along the Canadian border under a federal program that critics say could violate the state’s anti-bias policing laws.

“Up here, we’re so small we rely on our partner agencies,” said Swanton Village Police Chief Matthew Sullivan.

On a recent frosty Friday, Sullivan was patrolling along the Canadian border as part of Homeland Security’s Operation Stonegarden. The chief and other local officers work overtime shifts for the U.S. Border Patrol.

“It acts as a force multiplier because we’re able to put more officers out in these rural areas in Vermont,” Sullivan said.

During an exclusive ride-along, Sullivan showed us a field where, as recently as last fall, migrants were smuggled across the border. “These people are really being taken advantage of,” he said.

From 2022 to 2023, U.S. Border Patrol encountered just shy of 7,000 people entering the country illegally in the region, more than the previous 11 years combined.

In several instances, police say cars have tried to crash through a gate in Swanton along the border. Others enter from Canada on foot and get picked up by cars with out-of-state plates.

The chief says the illegal crossings strike fear among local parents. “They didn’t feel safe allowing their kids outside to play, which is extremely unfortunate,” Sullivan said.

Through Operation Stonegarden — which was created in the wake of 9/11 — Sullivan and his officers get overtime pay from the feds. “We’re kind of another set of eyes and ears for border patrol,” Sullivan said. His department also gets equipment and training.

Six agencies in Vermont participate in Stonegarden: The Vermont State Police, Chittenden County Sheriff’s Department, Essex County Sheriff’s Department, Orleans County Sheriff’s Department, Newport City Police Department, and the Swanton Village Police Department. Some three dozen across New England participate in Stonegarden. These agencies collect relatively small amounts from the feds — $760,000 in Vermont, $190,000 in New Hampshire, and $1 million in Maine.

But amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Stonegarden is under scrutiny.

“This has become quite relevant to a lot of people once again,” said Paul Heintz, a longtime Vermont journalist who now writes for the Boston Globe. “These three states have dramatically different policies when it comes to local law enforcement working with federal law enforcement.”

Vermont has some of the strictest rules about police assisting federal immigration officials. The Fair and Impartial Policing Policy limits cooperation with the feds and says immigration status, language, and proximity to the border cannot be the basis of an investigation.

“Vermonters have made clear through their elected representatives that they want state and local law enforcement to be focusing on state and local issues,” said Lia Ernst with the ACLU of Vermont. She says Stonegarden is crossing the line. “They don’t want their police to be a cog in the mass deportation machinery of any administration but particularly the Trump administration,” Ernst said.

The ACLU and other critics are concerned that Stonegarden creates a cozy relationship between local police and immigration officials that can be used to enforce the president’s immigration crackdown.

Heintz says the distinction between civil and criminal immigration enforcement can be fluid. In most civil cases in which the feds seek to deport, Vermont law enforcement can’t play a role because it’s against the law. In criminal cases, which local police can enforce, immigrants can be detained and charged.

“An operation may start out appearing to focus on a federal criminal immigration issue and may turn into a civil one over the course of that investigation,” Heintz said.

“There is a lot of nuance to it,” admitted Sullivan. He insists his department is not the long arm of federal law enforcement and is instead focused on crime, including guns, drugs, and human trafficking. However, if someone is caught in the act of crossing the border illegally, that constitutes a crime, and the chief said he calls for federal backup. Though he said that rarely happens.

“It’s a criminal violation to cross the border outside of a port of entry, and technically, we could take action on that. But again, we’re not here to enforce civil immigration while working Stonegarden,” Sullivan said.

Copyright 2025 WCAX. All rights reserved.

Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese, now seeking to reorganize its depleting finances in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, has received permission to sell its former Loretto Home senior living facility in Rutland.

In a ruling this week, Judge Heather Cooper said she’d allow the state’s largest religious denomination to accept a $1 million offer from Rutland’s nonprofit Cornerstone Housing Partners, which wants to transform the Meadow Street building into transitional and long-term affordable apartments.

“The proposed sale represents the highest and best offer for the property,” church lawyers argued in court papers, “and the proceeds of the sale will assist the diocese in funding the administration of this bankruptcy case and ultimately paying creditors.”

Cornerstone said it had a $3.9 million commitment from the state Agency of Human Services to help it buy and rehabilitate the 20,000-square-foot facility.

The nonprofit could immediately launch its first-phase plan for 16 units of emergency family housing under a new state law that expands locations for shelters. But the $1 million sale is contingent on receiving a Rutland zoning permit for a second-phase plan for at least 20 long-term apartments.

“We’re not going to purchase the building if we can’t create affordable apartments there,” Mary Cohen, the nonprofit’s chief executive officer, told VTDigger. “The goal is to create permanent housing.”

Cornerstone already has heard questions from neighbors as it seeks a zoning permit from Rutland’s Development Review Board.

“I think it’s a lack of understanding,” Cohen said. “We’re good landlords. We house people and take good care of our property. The application process will allow a public conversation about what our plans are.”

The Vermont Catholic Church filed for Chapter 11 protection a year ago after a series of clergy misconduct settlements reduced its assets by half, to about $35 million. Since then, 119 people have submitted new child sexual abuse allegations — almost double that of an earlier 67 accusers who previously settled cases over the past two decades.

To raise money, the diocese enlisted Pomerleau Real Estate to market the Loretto Home after the facility closed in 2023. The property, under the control of the church since 1904, was initially listed at $2.25 million before being reduced to $1.95 million and, by this year, $1.3 million, court records show. The diocese received an unspecified number of offers before accepting Cornerstone’s $1 million bid this summer.

Under the Chapter 11 process, the Vermont church must receive court approval for all major purchases and sales until a judge decides on its call for a reorganization plan.