Sen. Josh Hawley is suggesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement use Fort Leonard Wood to train and organize agents to work on the Trump administration's deportation program.
Hawley sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recommending the base 30 miles west of Rolla be used for such efforts.
“The installation is able to accommodate sudden surges in its on-base population, and it currently has extra capacity,” Hawley wrote.
Fort Leonard Wood houses military police training units for both the Army and the Marines. The 97-square-mile military facility in the Missouri Ozarks is also one of the Army’s primary locations for basic training, with more than 18,000 soldiers expected to start their military careers there this year.
Hawley said those factors would make it an ideal place to train ICE agents.
“Fort Leonard Wood has the infrastructure, experience, and space to support the rapid expansion of ICE’s critical immigration enforcement workforce,” he said.
ICE has had notable activity in Missouri in recent months, with jails in Rolla and Ste. Genevieve among the locations where the agency houses people it has detained across the Midwest.
Representatives at Fort Leonard Wood did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hawley’s suggestion.
