Trump administration weighs closing office overseeing resettlement of Afghans to the U.S.
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 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.”
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