http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/134199

Border Patrol may set up at old guest ranch
By Lourdes Medrano
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.19.2006
SASABE, Ariz. — At the end of a dirt road near this border hamlet, the desert terrain succumbs to an old guest ranch where city slickers experience the Old West in an upscale manner.

Embedded in a busy human-smuggling corridor, the Rancho De La Osa has caught the interest of another type of would-be guest: the U.S. Border Patrol.

Agency officials have toured the ranch several times, with an eye toward turning the Spanish hacienda into a Border Patrol station with a detention center.

The property, which De La Osa history dates to the 1700s, is selling for $4.25 million. The ranch comes with 19 rooms, an adobe cantina, a small cemetery and sprawling acreage. It is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ranch manager Richard Saler confirmed the Border Patrol visits. But he declined to discuss a potential sale or say whether the guest ranch has fallen victim to the area's rampant illegal border activity.

Gustavo Soto, a Border Patrol spokesman, said the De La Osa property is one of several sites being considered for another Border Patrol station. He would not discuss the other locations but said the bustle of illegal border crossers in the area has heightened the need for Tucson agents to be closer to the border.

"It would be the ninth Border Patrol station in the Tucson Sector," Soto said.

At the Sasabe General Store, owner Alice Knagge lamented the possible loss of the guest ranch's history, but said the Border Patrol probably would make a good neighbor. She knows many of the agents who patrol the area because they often drop in for snacks, she said.

Most of those agents start their shift at the Tucson station, then drive about 65 miles southwest to Sasabe's Altar Valley in search of illegal border crossers. All around the guest ranch, Border Patrol helicopters hover, ATVs rumble and watchtowers stand guard over the nearby border.

Even though captures of illegal border crossers are down from last year, Soto said, agents detained 13,000 illegal entrants in the first 14 days of June.

Most of those caught near Sasabe are processed in Nogales, 40 miles east, and deported through that port of entry, Soto said. Having a station closer could consolidate operations.

"There's a lot of benefits that would come with having a station in Sasabe," he said, noting that response time also would improve.

Members of Tucson's congressional delegation either couldn't be reached or didn't return calls to comment on the De La Osa property.

But even in today's climate, when Washington politicians tout border security as a top priority, the wheels of government are slow to turn.

Agent Soto said that even though the Tucson Sector has obtained approval from national headquarters to establish a new station, it could take a long time to take shape — at the De La Osa or elsewhere.

The Border Patrol first recognized the need for a station in Sonoita in the early- to mid-1980s, and one was finally completed in 1989, he said.

"That's the way the government works," he said.

● Contact reporter Lourdes Medrano at 573-4347 or lmedrano@azstarnet.com.