In a deeply troubling move, the U.S. Department of State has notified Congress that it will eliminate the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE), which is the only dedicated office tasked with supporting Afghans left behind following the Afghan evacuation in 2021. This change is set to take effect July 1, 2025, unless Congress intervenes. The Congressional notification document offers no replacement structure, no transition plan, and no clarity—only a quiet but impactful policy shift that threatens to cut the last remaining institutional link between the U.S. government and the Afghan people it once promised to protect.
The CARE office was established in the aftermath of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, when the world watched as the Taliban regained power and tens of thousands of Afghan allies–journalists, civil servants, women’s rights defenders, students, and judges—were left scrambling for safety. CARE became the central coordinating body for third-country processing, flight coordination, family reunification, and case escalation. For many Afghans, CARE was the only official channel through which hope could be pursued. Its sudden and disorganized elimination signals not only the erasure of that hope, but an intentional step away from responsibility.
The CN document, which spans a sweeping overhaul of State Department operations, folds CARE’s functions into the broader Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. That bureau is also notably being downsized with its regional offices consolidated, its Afghan Reconstruction Representative dissolved, and foreign assistance handling restructured. CARE staff have reportedly not been informed of what comes next, and the notification itself misnames the successor office, which underscores what advocates are calling a careless and dangerous transition. The implications are immediate and severe as without CARE, there is no longer a designated team coordinating evacuations, managing reunifications, or responding to urgent protection cases, and no clear channel for engagement with advocacy groups or Afghan diaspora organizations.
This isn’t happening in isolation. It comes as the Taliban continues to enforce one of the most extreme systems of gender apartheid in the world—erasing women from nearly every part of public life. Girls are banned from school past sixth grade. Women can’t work, travel, or access healthcare without a male guardian, and face punishment under a growing list of so-called “virtue” laws, with every week bringing a new edict. In this context, cutting CARE isn’t just a bureaucratic decision, it’s a clear abandonment of Afghan women, whose lives are in danger and whose paths to safety are disappearing.
The reorganization, framed by the State Department as a restructuring to align resources with “core national security objectives,” also eliminates the Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI), which previously served as a central voice on gender equality within U.S. foreign policy. While the Department claims these responsibilities will be integrated elsewhere, the closure removes institutional visibility and direct leadership on women’s rights at a time when Afghan women are facing unprecedented levels of repression.
Despite promises to support Afghan allies, the Trump administration appears to be walking away from those commitments. The CARE closure coincides with a broader shift in immigration and humanitarian policy. The same reorganization reorients the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) to focus on “remigration”, a term that reflects an agenda of returning individuals to their countries of origin rather than securing permanent protection. At the same time, Executive Order 14161 is expected to soon restrict or ban new visa issuances for Afghans, further closing the doors of opportunity and safety.
For Afghans who remain in hiding, and for those stranded in third countries awaiting refuge and reunification with their families, these layered policies feel like a betrayal and signals the breakdown of one of the last remaining support systems. CARE was not only a logistical office, but a recognition that the United States had a continuing obligation to those it left behind. Its quiet elimination, without public acknowledgment or a detailed plan for continuity, represents a significant step away from that responsibility.
Afghan women continue to resist—through underground schools, digital organizing, and international advocacy—but resilience alone cannot secure safety. They need concrete pathways, legal protections, and governments willing to act with urgency. Eliminating CARE does not just make that harder, it makes it nearly impossible.
Afghan women witnessed the helicopters lift off from Kabul in 2021, and now they watch the lights go out in Washington, one office at a time. Advocates are calling for Congress to reverse the decision and restore a dedicated mechanism for Afghan relocation. Without it, they warn, the United States risks abandoning the very people it once vowed to protect at a moment when the consequences could not be more dire.