This week the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted along party lines to reject funding from Operation Stonegarden. The federal grant program typically covers equipment and overtime pay associated with work done by law enforcement agencies in cooperation with Border Patrol. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department would have received nearly $2 million. Tucson Sentinel reporter Paul Ingram joined Lorraine Rivera in studio to explain why Operation Stonegarden has become a controversial issue, reasons for its most recent rejection and what it means for taxpayers.
“For the last 12 years, up until 2018, this was part of the consent agenda. It was something they would pass with a voice vote among a bunch of other things,” Ingram said. “What’s changed is, to a large degree, I think the Trump administration. The Trump administration has really poisoned the politics, soured the politics about Operation Stonegarden.”
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