Lee’s Summit, Missouri, is considering a proposed federal immigration-records campus exceeding 315,000 square feet, after the city received a preliminary development plan application on October 9, 2026. The filing remains at an early stage.
The proposal identifies the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. General Services Administration as the federal partners for the secure records campus. The project summary describes the intended facility as a primary national repository, supporting 24/7 mission-critical operations.
The application says the new campus would replace the existing underground records operation in the city. It describes the records involved as more than $26 million in immigration files. That figure is expressed as a dollar amount, not a count of individual records.
The city has not approved the project. Several municipal steps remain before officials can hold an approval vote.
The preliminary filing still faces city reviews and hearings
The city said the application must go through planning and review processes, along with public hearings, before it reaches an approval vote. Those steps leave the proposal short of approval.
No dates have been set out for the reviews or hearings. The city’s filing identifies the project and its proposed purpose, but does not establish a construction or opening schedule.
The proposed campus would exceed the original center’s planned size
The proposal’s stated footprint is larger than the original facility’s planned footprint.
| Facility | Planned size |
|---|---|
| Proposed records campus | Over 315,000 square feet |
| existing center, original plan | Approximately 200,000 square feet |
The existing center’s figure describes its planned size when fully operational. It is a comparison with the proposed campus, not a statement of the current facility’s measured size.
The city says the plan excludes detention and enforcement
The city addressed concerns about the facility’s role in a statement, distinguishing records services from immigration enforcement.
“It's important to clarify that USCIS provides services related to lawful immigration to the United States, and it is not an enforcement agency. The proposal does not include detainee housing or enforcement operations and is not associated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”
The application describes a records-management project. The city’s statement says it is not a detention center and does not include detainee housing.
The existing center began consolidating records in 1999
The current National Records Center was built around a nationwide consolidation effort. At its dedication, the center was designed to bring together more than 25 million INS alien records, known as A-files, that had been kept at more than 80 INS sites nationwide.
INS Commissioner Doris Meissner participated in the dedication with Lee’s Summit Mayor Karen R. Messerli, Jackson County Executive Katheryn F. Shields and General Services Administration Regional Administrator Glen W. Overton. The center began its first phase of operations in November 1999, with approximately 130 employees.
Its original plan called for more than 400 employees when fully operational. The facility was also intended to provide records management and information retrieval, FOIA/Privacy Act processing and immigrant status verification services. USCIS’s historical account says the site selection followed a decade of analysis and planning.
Officials cited the site’s central geographic location, transportation and communications infrastructure, a qualified labor force and proximity to a National Archives and Records Administration Federal Records Center. Meissner said consolidating paper files would shorten retrieval time “from weeks and even months to only a few days.”
The center also handles certain records requests
The existing operation remains a destination for some USCIS records requests. Requests under the FOIA or Privacy Act concerning living people, as well as records dated after the Genealogy Program timelines, are directed to the FOIA/PA Office at P.O. Box 648010, Lee's Summit, MO 64064-8010. USCIS lists records not available through its Genealogy Program.
FOIA Operations has been staffed entirely at the records center. The planned facility’s stated functions would continue the location’s role in handling and managing immigration records.
