Week after closure, no sign of Broadacres swap meet reopening
A week after Broadacres Marketplace shut down unexpectedly, citing “uncertainty” within the immigrant community, it’s unclear how long the closure will last.
The popular North Las Vegas swap meet typically opens during the weekend but cut operations short on June 21, alluding to fear of immigration raids being the cause. As of Friday morning, there was no indication that the swap meet would reopen this weekend.
“We don’t want any of our customers, vendors, or employees to be detained at our business for us to be a beacon of shopping and entertainment while our federal government is raiding businesses and detaining its people,” the business wrote in a statement.
The development, which Broadacres described as temporary, occurred days after Border Patrol agents raided a swap meet in California and during the backdrop of increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration’s directive.
The Department of Homeland Security has been mostly mum about immigration enforcement in Southern Nevada and didn’t respond to a message seeking comment about the California raid. Media reports indicate two people were arrested in that operation.
A brief email from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the day the Broadacres closure was announced said “ICE wasn’t at the swap meet.”
Management at Broadacres has not responded to inquiries seeking comment.
But responding on Friday afternoon to a post from a social media follower who stated he missed the market, Broadacres said “we will be back soon.”
This week, local and state officials raised the alarm to the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the economic impact of unauthorized immigrants being afraid to leave their homes.
Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., on Friday echoed those concerns, saying that they were “due to the fear of ICE raids in our community.”
“Broadacres has long served as a vital economic and cultural center for residents and small businesses, particularly within the Latino community,” he said in a video posted on X.
Horsford said he would monitor the closure and do everything he could to work with Broadacres.
“It’s more than just a market, it’s a reflection of what our community stands for, culture and opportunity,” Horsford said. “This closure deeply affects families, small-business owners and our local economy.”
The discussion about Broadacres and immigration escalated this week when the Nevada Republican Party interjected on social media.
“If you can’t stay open without illegal aliens, you don’t deserve to be open at all,” the party wrote on X.
The party then pointed out to federal officials the legal status of family members of state Sen. Fabian Doñate, who had called the Republicans “anti-business and anti-economic impact.”
Nevada Democrats and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo chastised the party’s post.
“Attacking people’s families should be off limits in politics,” Lombardo wrote in a statement to the Review-Journal. ”I won’t do it, and I don’t condone it.”
Lombardo said the state will continue following federal law and cooperate with immigration authorities.
“Protecting our communities from crime is vital to the small businesses that drive our state’s economy,” he added. “Those who say otherwise are presenting a false choice.”
The statement announcing the temporary closure continued to pop up Friday evening when visiting the Broadacres website.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.
