Trump Sets Record-Low U.S. Refugee Cap at 7,500, Prioritizing White South Africans
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Donald Trump has capped U.S. refugee admissions at a record low while giving priority to White South Africans.
In a notice posted to the Federal Register, Trump said 7,500 refugees would be allowed into the country in 2026, but “numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners.”
Afrikaners are an ethnic group descended mainly from Dutch and French settlers.
Highlights
- Trump sets a record-low U.S. refugee cap at 7,500 for 2026.
- The 7,500 refugee spots will mainly go to Afrikaners—white South Africans who say they face discrimination in their home country.
- Refugee groups criticize the decision as racist and a mockery of U.S. refugee protection and humanitarian values.
Donald Trump has capped refugee admissions and given priority to Afrikaners
Image credits: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Other victims of “illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands” will also be able to apply.
The number is the lowest to ever be set for a fiscal year and is a drop from Trump’s previous record for a cap of 15,000 in 2021.
Former President Joe Biden had set the limit of admissions to 125,000.
No specific reasoning has been given for the reduction, but the notice states it is “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”
It comes after the Trump administration suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Programme (USRAP) in January, stating it would not restart until allowing refugees into the country “aligns with the interests” of the U.S.
The decision to lower the admissions number and primarily grant status to white South Africans has been slammed by refugee groups who described it as a “mockery” of refugee protection and American values.
“Let us be frank: whatever hardships some Afrikaners may face, this population has no plausible claim on refugee status – they are not fleeing systematic persecution,” Refugees International said in a statement.
“Indeed, the PD seems to concede this by referring to them as victims of ‘discrimination’ rather than persecution.
“Meanwhile this decision does material harm to tens of thousands of refugees abroad who the United States previously vetted and approved to resettle and unite with family.
“People truly facing persecution today – Afghan women, Congolese survivors of sexual violence, Sudanese genocide survivors, political dissidents, oppressed religious minorities – are now blocked from access to resettlement in the United States.”
The organization further accused the Trump administration of sending “a blatantly racist political message about who belongs in America” and called on it to reverse its decision.
Similarly, Global Refuge said the move lowered moral standing and “concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program’s purpose as well as its credibility.”
“Offering refuge is an act of faith — faith in people, in second chances, and in our shared humanity,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge, said.
“That faith has shaped America’s story for generations, and turning away from it now would be a betrayal of both our history and our hope.”
In February, Trump cut aid to South Africa and signed an executive order allowing Afrikaners to be resettled in the U.S.
He claimed Afrikaners were “refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”
The U.S. welcomed a group of Afrikaners earlier this year
Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The allegations relate to claims that the South African government has been seizing land from white farmers without compensation, and that white farmers are being targeted.
A group of Afrikaners arrived in the U.S. in May following Trump’s executive order.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa later met with Trump in the White House, where he was shown videos that Trump claimed were evidence of “white genocide.”
Trump asked for the lights to be dimmed so he could show footage, and he said it backed up the claims.
The footage was a compilation of clips and showed white crosses on a roadside, which Trump claimed were burial sites for “over 1,000 white farmers” in South Africa.
Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
However, that footage has been circulating for five years, with social media users often claiming it is a newly filmed clip, but the crosses are not burial sites.
The clip is understood to be from a protest on September 5, 2020, after the murder of white farming couple Glenn and Vida Rafferty in Normandien, near Newcastle.
Several local media reports from 2020 show that the crosses were part of a peaceful protest regarding farm murders and were later removed.
South Africa has disputed claims that Afrikaners and white South Africans are being targeted, saying allegations of discrimination are unfounded and previously describing Afrikaner resettlement as “politically motivated.”
Image credits: Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
While crime statistics released by the South African Police Service do not specify race, figures from earlier this year show that there were 6,953 murders between October and December 2024.
There were 12 recorded murders on farms—one victim was a farmer, four were employees, and five were farm dwellers.
Ramaphosa did sign a controversial bill earlier this year that allows the government to seize privately owned land without compensation under some circumstances.
