Leland Merritt Ford (March 8, 1893 – November 27, 1965) was an American businessman and politician who served two terms as a U.S. Representative from California from 1939 to 1943.

He moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1915 and was employed by the Union Pacific Railroad.

He was the first congressman to lobby for the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II, and spearheaded the anti-Japanese campaign in California.

(Ford initially defended Japanese Americans when Representative John Rankin proposed deporting every "Jap" in the country, but reversed his position after receiving angry letters and telegrams from constituents.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress