The Trump administration plans to restrict refugee admissions to the US to 7,500 in the coming year, prioritizing white South Africans.
This decision, revealed in a notice released on Thursday, signifies a significant reduction from the former cap of 125,000 set by ex-President Joe Biden, establishing a new record low.
No explanation was provided for this reduction, though the notice stated it was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest”.
In January, Trump issued an executive order halting the US Refugee Admissions Programme, or USRAP, claiming it would allow US officials to focus on national security and public safety.
The lowest previous cap on refugee admissions was set by Trump’s first administration in 2020, which designated 15,000 positions for the fiscal year 2021.
The notice on the Federal Register indicated that the 7,500 admissions would be “primarily” directed towards Afrikaner South Africans and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands”.
In February, the US president declared a halt to vital aid to South Africa and suggested allowing members of the Afrikaner community—primarily white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers—to resettle in the US as refugees.
Later, South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing Trump of “mobilising a supremacism” and attempting to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle”.
In a May Oval Office meeting, Trump confronted South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, asserting that white farmers in the country were facing killing and “persecution”.
The White House also showcased a video that they claimed depicted burial sites of slain white farmers. It was later revealed that the footage came from a 2020 protest where the crosses symbolised farmers who had been killed over several years.
This tense encounter followed shortly after the US granted asylum to 60 Afrikaners.
The South African administration has strongly denied claims of persecution against Afrikaners and other White South Africans.
On his inaugural day in office on January 20, Trump announced the suspension of USRAP to acknowledge the US’s inability to “absorb significant numbers of migrants, particularly refugees, into its communities without compromising resource availability for Americans” and “ensuring their safety and security”.
The US policy of admitting white South Africans has already drawn accusations of biased treatment from refugee advocacy organizations.
Some critics assert that the US is effectively closed to other persecuted demographics or individuals facing possible danger in their home nations, as well as former allies who assisted US forces in Afghanistan or the Middle East.
“This decision not only reduces the refugee admissions limit,” said Global Refuge CEO and president Krish O’Mara Vignarajah on Thursday, “it diminishes our moral authority.”
“During a crisis in countries from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, restricting the majority of admissions to a single group undermines the program’s intent as well as its credibility,” she stated.
Refugees International also condemned the decision, declaring it “makes a mockery of refugee protection and of American values”.
“Let’s be clear: regardless of the challenges some Afrikaners may encounter, this group lacks a legitimate claim for refugee status – they are not escaping systematic persecution,” stated Refugees International in their statement.
The South African government has yet to respond to the recent announcement.
During the Oval Office conference, President Ramaphosa only expressed hope that Trump’s staff would heed the concerns of South Africans, and later mentioned his belief that there exists “doubt and disbelief about all this in [Trump’s] mind”.
Earlier this year, Ramaphosa enacted a contentious law permitting the government to take privately-held land without compensation under certain conditions.
Despite the absence of race-based crime statistics, figures published earlier this year indicated that 7,000 individuals were slain in South Africa from October to December 2024.
Of these, 12 were casualties of farm attacks, with only one among them being a farmer. Five others were farm residents and four were employees, likely of black ethnicity.
