The Yuma Swap Meet normally opens for residents and winter visitors in November so they can shop at over 350 vendors. Now those small businesses are in jeopardy of losing out on revenue as it looks like the federal government is going to acquire the land used for the swap meet to expand Border Patrol's holding capacity for illegal immigrants.
On Tuesday, the Yuma Swap Meet announced it will not reopen for the 2023 season in November as originally planned based on their conversations with the feds, who want to expand their capacity amid an even greater influx of illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"This is not our idea, and we believe we have no choice in the matter. The US Government has a right under US law to take the property," the swap meet states on their website.
"Yuma Swap Meet has operated at the same location for over 60 years, and we are proud of the contributions we have made to Yuma. At our core, we are a big family where hundreds of small local businesses work hard to make a living. At the same time, we are the largest tourist attraction in Yuma County with tens of thousands of visitors coming from Yuma and across the US, Canada and Mexico all winter," said President of Yuma Swap Meet Bill Gresser Jr.
"We have always been good neighbors with the Border Patrol, and everyone appreciates their work for our country. We understand they need to expand, and we’ve been told that the Swap Meet property is the best property where they can expand," he added.
"We truly are a family here at the Swap Meet. All our vendors are small, family-owned businesses. I’ve watched children working in their family’s stand who grew up to be vendors on their own. We have vendors who started with a few items, grow their business and open stores in town. Our objective is to be the ideal location for small businesses to start and grow," said Sylvia Parada, the space sales manager and an employee since 1990.
General Manager Max Dunham said the market services up to 10,000 shoppers per weekend when it is open.
The Yuma Swap Meet is actively looking for a new space to host the market and will have more news on that in the coming months.
So far this fiscal year, the Yuma Sector has seen almost 170,000 illegal border crossings, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The vast majority of those illegally coming into the small border town are not from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala. Over 100,000 of those are single adults, with 57,803 being family units.