A program to relocate vulnerable Afghans, including allies who helped the U.S. during the war and families of American service members, that was dismantled by the Trump administration would be reestablished under a bipartisan bill introduced Tuesday.
The Enduring Welcome Act would revive the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE, which was established after the 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan to help resettle Afghans fleeing the Taliban and was shuttered by the State Department earlier this year.
“Honoring our commitments to our Afghan allies should never be a partisan issue, but a matter of moral responsibility, national honor and global credibility,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., said in a statement Tuesday about introducing the bill. “With this bipartisan bill, we are sending a clear and unified message: The United States keeps its promises.”
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In addition to Kamlager-Dove, the bill is sponsored by Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.; and Dina Titus, D-Nev. All four are members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and McCaul is its former chairman.
The bill is also co-sponsored by 12 other Democrats and three other Republicans.
The bill’s introduction comes during the four-year anniversary of the U.S. military evacuation of Afghanistan. After Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, the military spent the next two weeks evacuating as many U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghan civilians as possible before the last American troops departed.
While thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort or whose lives were otherwise threatened by the Taliban were evacuated, thousands more were left behind. The Biden administration created CARE in 2022 to streamline continued relocation efforts.
Last year, Congress passed a law mandating that the State Department appoint a coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts, though the law did not require the entire CARE office.
Relocation efforts froze almost immediately after President Donald Trump took office in January as a result of several executive orders, including ones to halt refugee admissions and foreign aid programs.
Then, as part of a broader reorganization, the State Department announced in May it was scrapping CARE, and in July, the office’s leaders were part of the department’s mass firings. Despite those moves, the State Department has maintained that ongoing relocations will be handled by the department’s Afghan affairs office.
Last month, Trump also twice promised to protect Afghans who helped U.S. troops during the war.
“We’re going to take care of those people, the ones that did a job, the ones that were told certain things,” Trump told reporters last month.
But flights of Afghans awaiting relocation to the United States have not resumed. Additionally, the Trump administration is seeking to deport at least two Afghans who worked with the American military and fled to the U.S.
Bipartisan sponsorship of the bill introduced Tuesday represents one of the few times Republicans have gone on the record to oppose a Trump administration action and support a concrete effort to reverse that action.
Still, it’s unclear whether the bipartisan support will be enough to power the bill through Congress. A separate measure to strengthen legal protections for Afghans, known as the Afghan Adjustment Act, has stalled for years despite bipartisan support.
In addition to restoring the CARE program, the bill introduced Tuesday would solidify the office’s functions. That includes “addressing family reunification barriers, including cases involving United States active-duty service members and veterans,” according to the bill text.
#AfghanEvac, a coalition of organizations that help resettle Afghans, has estimated that more than 200 U.S. service members have family members stranded abroad awaiting relocation to the United States.
The bill would also require the State Department to create a database of Afghans in the relocation pipeline “to inform operations and ensure transparency,” the bill says.
Under the bill, the CARE office would sunset in five years, while the database would be permanent.
“Our Afghan allies fought and bled alongside U.S. troops, and in return they were promised our protection,” McCaul, who led an investigation of the withdrawal, said in a statement. “Yet as my Afghanistan report revealed, tens of thousands were abandoned during the chaotic withdrawal, left to face horrific violence and reprisal killings at the hands of the Taliban — all because they chose to help us. I’m proud to co-lead the Enduring Welcome Act to honor our promise, stand by those who stood by us, and telegraph a clear message of American strength and credibility throughout the world.”
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