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After freezing refugee admissions and cutting off funding to groups that support them, Donald Trump’s administration is now drastically reducing the number of refugees admitted into the United States each year — and handing most of those limited slots to white South Africans.
White House proposals previously reported by The Independent were formally added to the federal register on Thursday.
Refugee admissions will now explicitly prioritize Afrikaners for resettlement, and the ceiling for admissions has been radically reduced from 125,000 people to only 7,500 for the next year.
The move represents a stark break from a refugee policy informed by humanitarian needs, not ideology or identity, according to refugee resettlement groups.
“This decision doesn’t just lower the refugee admissions ceiling. It lowers our moral standing,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, one of the nation’s largest resettlement organizations.
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Donald Trump’s overhaul of the nation’s refugee admissions process explicitly prioritizes white South Africans and strands thousands of people in the resettlement process, including Afghans (AFP via Getty Images)
“At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program’s purpose as well as its credibility,” she said.
Human Rights First called the move “blatantly racist” and a “new low point” in U.S. foreign policy.
“Turning our back on hundreds of thousands of truly at-risk refugees fleeing religious, political, and other forms of persecution defies decades of bipartisan support for welcoming the vulnerable, from Vietnamese to Afghan allies,” said the group’s president Uzra Zeya.
“Let’s call this what it is — white supremacy disguised as refugee policy,” added Guerline Jozef, director of immigration advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance. “At a time when Black refugees from Haiti, Sudan, the Congo, and Cameroon are drowning at sea, languishing in detention, or being deported to death, the U.S. government has decided to open its arms to those who already enjoy global privilege.”
The White House did not provide a reason for the drop in admissions, but the notice in the federal register states that the figure is “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”
The document does not mention any other specific groups to be admitted besides white South Africans.
“Other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands” will also be considered for admission into the country as refugees, but the document does not provide any detail on what that entails.
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The White House is also capping refugee admissions to 7,500 within the next year, marking a sharp drop from 125,000 in the previous year (AFP via Getty Images)
The overhaul also appears to strand thousands of refugees who are being vetted for entry or have already completed extensive background checks. The number of now-stranded refugees who had already been approved to enter the United States, with confirmed travel plans to resettle in the country, is now larger than the entire refugee program.
“It is egregious to exclude refugees who completed years of rigorous security checks and are currently stuck in dangerous and precarious situations,” according to Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
“America’s refugee program was built to reflect our values, and the thousands of individuals we’ve closed our doors to represent thousands of missed opportunities of people who could have strengthened a local community or economy,” Aly said.
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Trump administration officials began welcoming white South Africans into the United States as refugees earlier this year, and the State Department is expecting to resettle thousands more within the coming months (AP)
Trump directed an overhaul of the nation’s refugee admissions program earlier this year to study whether allowing refugees into the country was even in the interest of the United States.
The president is required to notify Congress about changes to the program, but lawmakers were not consulted.
Shortly after Trump entered office in January, the administration abruptly canceled previously arranged refugee flights.
Over the last several months, the administration has also slashed financial aid and healthcare coverage for refugees, and the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act restricts refugees from eligibility for Medicaid, Medicare, children’s health insurance and emergency food assistance.
In May, a group of 59 white South Africans were admitted to the United States as “refugees,” and the United States “essentially extended citizenship” to them, Trump said at the time.
The State Department is reportedly planning to resettle 2,000 Afrikaners by the end of October and then another 4,000 by the end of November.
At least 700 Afrikaners are being processed for imminent resettlement in the United States at the end of the government shutdown, following dozens of Afrikaners who were already admitted to the country as refugees earlier this year.
