Arkansas National Guard officials confirmed Tuesday that Fort Chaffee has not been selected to house refugees, citing the readiness of other sites in the United States to take them. The military base could be selected in the future if the refugee population becomes too great for the other selected sites.
Axios reported that officials were evaluating the 65,000-acre training site — which is under the jurisdiction of the Arkansas National Guard — as a possible processing location for refugees being evacuated from Afghanistan. Over 50,000 Afghans and their families await evacuation assistance from the U.S. ahead of an Aug. 31 Taliban “red line” to withdraw all military forces.
This would not be the first time Fort Chaffee has helped during a time of crisis. In 2005, about 10,000 people from Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi took shelter there following Hurricane Katrina. About 25,000 refugees from Cuba were processed there in the early 1980s, and in 1975, about 51,000 refugees from Vietnam started their lives in the U.S. at Fort Chaffee.
