Newport Beach police awarded $170K grant as part DHS’ Operation Stonegarden
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The Newport Beach City Council approved a $170,000 grant allowing for its police department to participate in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Stonegarden.
Council members voted unanimously in favor of the grant without deliberation during Tuesday’s council meeting.
According to a city staff report, Operation Stonegarden’s “main objective is to raise the level of U.S. border and California coastline security amongst law enforcement agencies” while increasing law enforcement’s overall presence against maritime drug and human smuggling crimes.
The Newport Beach Police Department, as part of the grant approval, will collaborate and coordinate with federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol agencies as the agreement describes California’s coastline as a “border-crime target.”
San Clemente city officials are looking to work with border patrol agents to install and monitor cameras along its beach and pier to curb illegal panga landings.
Toward that end, Newport Beach police will use $70,000 from the grant to buy two mobile cameras and two handheld thermal imaging devices to monitor “hot-spot” areas, such as parking lots and trailheads, while enhancing nighttime surveillance capabilities.
The remaining $100,000 will go toward covering overtime expenses.
Operation Stonegarden has raised some concerns as ramped up federal immigration raids have surfaced in Orange County and across Southern California.
“In view of the current conflict between state and federal agencies over immigration policy, the public may want additional assurances that the equipment and overtime will not be used to assist in the apprehension of law-abiding persons with long residence in our country,” Jim Mosher, a Newport Beach resident, wrote to the City Council.
But even before President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdown, pro-immigrant activists have kept a close eye on the program.
Mai Nguyen Do, research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice in Orange County, pointed to a number of law enforcement agencies and local governments in Arizona that have withdrawn from Operation Stonegarden in recent years for a variety of reasons, including misaligned missions.
“The justification for continuing to participate in Operation Stonegarden among many Southern California law enforcement agencies, is that it’s technically not immigration enforcement,” Do said. “But one of the main outcomes that’s tracked for the program is arrests numbers, including immigration-related arrests.”
“One of the key elements that erodes trust between local law enforcement and communities, is not the nature of the cooperation, it’s the cooperation itself,” Do added.
A Newport Beach Police Department spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment by press deadline.
DHS allocated $2.7 million for Operation Stonegarden for the 2024 fiscal year and tapped the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department to act as the grants administrator.
In addition to Newport Beach, other Orange County law enforcement agencies receiving grant money include police departments for Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Costa Mesa and La Habra.
Newport Beach police have until February 2027 to spend the grant funds.
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