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.