Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), accompanied by Sen. Angus King (I-ME) (L), speaks as United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (USNORTHCOM) Commander Gen. Gregory Guillot, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs Mark Ditlevson, and Department of War Principal Deputy General Counsel Charles Young III, appear at a Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill on Dec. 11, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday questioned why the U.S. Transportation Command and the State Department were not doing more to get stranded American citizens out of the Middle East amid the war with Iran.
There may still be tens of thousands of U.S. citizens stuck in the region, and the Trump administration has been too slow to act as violence spilled out of Iran into surrounding countries, the Massachusetts Democrat said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
“Let’s be clear, the Trump administration chose this war. They planned this war for months, and they made no plans to safeguard hundreds of thousands of Americans in the region. There is no excuse for this,” Warren said.
Americans reported feeling stranded in the region in the days immediately after war broke out. A State Department warning for U.S. citizens to “DEPART NOW” to Americans in 14 countries set off a scramble, with some saying they were left to fend for themselves. Amid the criticism, the State Department said last week they were ramping up flights for American to get out of the region.
While President Donald Trump suggested earlier this week the war would end “very soon,” there is no immediate end in sight, and Americans in the region are trying to contend with an ever-evolving regional conflict.
The State Department has published regular updates on the amount of Americans relocated out of the region since Trump announced the war with Iran on Feb. 28, and on Thursday a spokesperson said nearly 47,000 citizens had returned to the U.S.
The State Department had completed more than two dozen charter flights, and at this point the number of seats offered on those flights outstrips demand, the spokesperson said.
“While commercial flight availability across the region continues to improve, Department of State charter flight and ground transport operations continue to operate,” the spokesperson said without providing a name, responding to an email sent to the agency’s media inquiries account.
Gen. Randall Reed, commander of TRANSCOM, testified at the Thursday hearing that his command had assisted in the airlift of hundreds of Americans out of the region.
But Warren said the effort has fallen short.
“What I’m trying to understand is why you’re not doing more,” Warren asked Reed. “Because I’m hearing from my constituents who are stranded there, who’ve been stranded there for two weeks and they’re asking for help, and they’re not getting help from the U.S. government.”
Bringing Americans home
While many Americans have left and some are choosing to stay in the region, others are still stuck. The State Department spokesperson said the department was “now working 24/7 to bring Americans home.”
Some lawmakers are taking matters into their own hands.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., posted to X about a trip she took this week to the Middle East to help a family from her district that was stuck there.
“The family I traveled here for are safely home. But then I learned about more families. Hundreds of families. Thousands. Still stranded,” Mace wrote.
Congressional caseworkers, the aides who field inquiries from constituents, have similarly reported that Americans are feeling stranded and frustrated with the federal government’s response to the war.
One Senate Democratic caseworker — who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the press — said she has heard from constituents in places like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Israel and Kuwait. Some are tourists, others are students or Americans in the region for work, in some cases with their families.
“People there that are in the Middle East, just wanting to leave but having absolutely no way to leave, they are scared, they are terrified and they are feeling abandoned,” the caseworker said. “Their families here are scared and terrified and wondering why the U.S. government has not already gotten their loved one home.”
Inconsistent messaging from the government did not help, the Senate caseworker, and a House Democratic caseworker, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, both said.
In the first days of the war, the guidance to Americans in the region was to shelter in place, the House aide said. But the “DEPART NOW” message on March 2 caused panic. The air space was closed in many countries in the region, making commercial flights an unlikely route home. The government provided a phone number for a help line, but that had a long wait. When they did get through, they were at times told they were on their own, the caseworker said.
“What we were hearing from constituents was absolute panic,” the House aide said.
