The Trump administration has told the office overseeing the resettlement of Afghans to the United States to draw up plans to shut down by April. The move could strand more than 250,000 Afghans and their families who face persecution from the Taliban for their ties to America, according to a refugee advocate and two sources with knowledge of the matter.
“This is a national disgrace, a betrayal of our Afghan allies, of the veterans who fought for them and of America’s word,” Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, told NBC News.
No final decision has been made about the future of the Enduring Welcome program managed by the State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, known as CARE. But office staff members were instructed to prepare plans to wind down operations by the end of March, VanDiver and the two sources said.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters first reported the preparations.
Created after the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan in 2021, CARE oversees efforts across U.S. government agencies to evacuate at-risk Afghans, process them in third countries and resettle them in the U.S. under a program called “Enduring Welcome.”
It also works to address the challenges women and girls face under the Taliban, who have rolled back their rights and protections.
Among the over 250,000 Afghans who could be stranded if the office is closed are 128,000 people in Afghanistan who worked for the United States and have applied for special immigrant visas along with their families, as well as several thousand Afghans who were fully vetted and are waiting in Albania, Qatar and other countries to travel to the United States, according to U.S.-based refugee advocates working with the Afghans.
The Afghans potentially affected also include family members of 200 active-duty Afghan American U.S. service members, unaccompanied minors waiting to be reunited with their parents and relatives of Afghans already settled in the United States.
The discussions around closing the State Department CARE office are separate from the freeze on refugee resettlement and foreign aid that President Donald Trump ordered on his first day back in office.
Tahera Rezaei, an Afghan veterinarian who lives in Chicago after having worked with Americans in Afghanistan, said she has been trying to get her family members out and is shocked and confused that the flights may be shut down.
“I keep saying this has to be a mistake or an oversight. We were told that those who worked with USA would not be left behind,” she said in a message to NBC News. “We all followed the rules, and I cannot believe this is actually happening.”
She added: “I am worried about my family I tried so hard to bring them here but now I’m heartbroken.”
VanDiver said American military veterans will be devastated if their Afghan partners are left behind in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
“President Trump brought up Afghanistan at every single debate. Does he know that his administration is now abandoning the very Afghan allies who fought and shed blood alongside those service members? We cannot believe that President Trump is aware of what’s happening here,” VanDiver said.
“Veterans put their own credibility on the line to bring our Afghan allies home. We told them that America keeps its word. Now this administration is making liars out of all of us,” he said.
VanDiver and other advocates said it was not too late to salvage the program with either a decision from the Trump administration or action by Congress.
Kim Staffieri, executive director of the Association of Wartime Allies, a nonprofit group that helps Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, said she hoped the Trump administration would preserve the resettlement effort, as it did in Trump’s first term.
“We made promises. They stood by our troops. We owe it to them to bring them to a place of safety. And we hope the administration will continue processing their applications, as they did last time,” she said.
The Taliban has jailed, tortured or killed Afghans who fought or worked for the former U.S.-backed government, according to the United Nations. The Taliban deny that, saying they announced a “general amnesty” for former government soldiers and officials when they returned to power.
Thousands of Afghans who are awaiting U.S. resettlement from third countries are in Pakistan, which says it will deport those awaiting relocation back to Afghanistan by March 31 unless their cases are swiftly processed by the governments that have agreed to take them, The Associated Press reported.
