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Yuma County Board of Supervisors formally approves portable toilets along the border

KAWC | By Victor Calderón
Published January 22, 2023 at 10:42 AM MST
Tennis shoes are among items of clothing left behind at a portable toilet at the U.S.-Mexico border where a gap in the wall separates Algodones, Mexico, from Yuma, on May 16, 2022.
Photo by Frederic Brown/AFP via Getty Images.
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AFP
Tennis shoes are among items of clothing left behind at a portable toilet at the U.S.-Mexico border where a gap in the wall separates Algodones, Mexico, from Yuma, on May 16, 2022.

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors has formally approved the placement of portable restrooms along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Board Chairman Martin Porchas told KAWC the portable toilets have been in place for several months. There are currently 17 toilets along the border fence for arriving asylum seekers to keep them from going into nearby ag fields.

Porchas said adding the toilets has served "to help the farmers in that way to prevent any outbreak of food safety issues.”

Porchas says the $70,000 cost for the toilets comes from emergency management funds in the county’s general fund. Supervisors plan to ask to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Supervisors said there was an average of 850 asylum seekers crossing into Yuma County each day last year. Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls said last week that number is down to about 700 migrants a day.
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Victor Calderón
Victor is originally from West Sacramento, California and has lived in Arizona for more than five years. He began his print journalism career in 2004 following his graduation from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Victor has been a reporter for the following daily newspapers: The Monterey County Herald, The Salinas Californian and the Reno Gazette-Journal, where he covered stories including agriculture, education and Latino community news. Victor has also served as a local editor for Patch, a national news organization with hyperlocal websites, in Carmichael, California in the Sacramento area. He also served as the editor for The New Vision, the newspaper for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, which includes Yuma and La Paz counties. Victor lives in Somerton. He enjoys spending time with his family and friends and following most sports.
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