Foothills hotel will not be used as housing facility for asylum seekers
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The Best Western hotel in the Yuma Foothills will not move forward with plans to house individuals coming across the border.
On Tuesday, September 28th, the hotel planned on closing to the public and would only be used for housing undocumented immigrants. Instead - the Best Western will now be open for booking.
According to Darren Simmons, the Yuma County board member for district three, fencing and other federal vehicles are gone. He says the decision could have been made after the community voiced concerns.
“It’s been the community coming together and voicing their concerns about not having this facility in their neighborhood. It was a bad situation in my opinion because the location is front and center in the foothills on frontage road. Its a busy road,” Simmons explained.
Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls posted the news to his Facebook page Saturday.
He provided News 11 with a statement:
“The decision to not place a second endeavor’s hotel in Yuma is a good decision. The current immigration crisis is a federal issue, and as such, the impacts need to be borne by the entire nation, not just small border communities. this decision addresses the disproportionate impact the second hotel would have on our economy as Yuma’s hospitality industry works to recover during the peak season that we missed last year during the pandemic.”
- Mayor Doug Nicholls, City of Yuma
Endeavors is the Texas-based organization in charge of housing asylum seekers, both in the Yuma Foothills and at the Wingate in Yuma. Currently, the Wingate by Windham will continue housing asylum seekers.
As for the other hotel, it will be open for bookings as normal. Although, it could suffer financially from that loss, given a recent report from the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association, stating that hotels in the state are on track to lose $1.3 billion in business travel revenue this year.
We've reached out to management at the Best Western, however, they did not want to answer our questions.
We’re also still waiting to hear back from Endeavors.
