http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/150902

Tucson Region
Buenos Aires refuge border area is closed

By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.13.2006

A five-mile stretch of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge on the U.S.-Mexican border has been closed to protect visitors.
Violence from smugglers and bandits has increased recently and the area is bustling around the clock with illegal entrants trying to cross, Border Patrol agents chasing after them and National Guard troops providing backup for the agents, said Mitch Ellis, refuge manager.
Refuge officials had been contemplating the decision for some time and said the cumulative effects of a decade of traffic prompted the decision rather than one incident, Ellis said.
"That's the border today," said Ellis, who has been at the refuge for more than two years. "It's a dangerous place and some places are more dangerous than others."
Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents increased by about 300 from last year and about 1,100 National Guard troops have been in the sector since June supporting the Border Patrol in administrative duties and by spotting illegal crossings.
That contributed to a decrease in apprehensions and border deaths in the sector in fiscal 2006, but the sector remains the busiest on the southern border with thousands crossing daily.
The National Guard erected one mile of chest-high, criss-cross-welded steel vehicle barriers in the refuge that stop vehicles from crossing, but allow people and wildlife to pass. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, west of Buenos Aires, has vehicle barriers along 30 miles of international border. The monument has closed a third of its 331,000 acres because of public-safety concerns.
The 3,500-acre closed area in Buenos Aires, which covers from the border one mile north along a five-mile stretch east of Sasabe, accounts for 3 percent of the 118,000-acre refuge. It shouldn't affect visitors because the border area is not frequently visited, Ellis said.
The closure, which went into effect Oct. 3, will continue indefinitely, he said.
● Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or at bmccombs@azstarnet.com.