by Phoebe Huss / Cal-Matters /  July 31, 2026 Summary: Following a CalMatters investigation, students and faculty at UC San Diego protested against campus police for collaborating with Border Patrol through a federal grant program. The university will stop participating in the program and aiding patrols, sources and internal documents confirm. A California public university cut ties with a federal program that paid for campus police to aid Border Patrol, within weeks of CalMatters revealing the decade-long partnership. Operation Stonegarden, a grant managed by the Department of Homeland Security, allocates an average of $11 million each year for California law enforcement agencies to work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its subagency Border Patrol on border security missions. Dozens of police forces throughout the state receive the grant, including campus police at UC San Diego, a recipient since around 2012. On Feb. 10, a CalMatters article explained how UC San Diego police used the grant to patrol sections of the coastline near campus, which quickly set off an uproar among students who felt it placed undocumented and international students at risk. By Feb. 26, after students emailed complaints and threatened to hold a public rally, student Aryan Dixit said the campus police chief, Lamine Secka, agreed to leave the grant program in a one-on-one meeting.