The U.S. will admit significantly fewer refugees in the upcoming year, with the majority of those accepted being individuals whom President Donald Trump has alleged face “unjust” racial discrimination in their country.
The Trump Administration plans to cap refugee admissions at no more than 7,500 during the 2026 fiscal year, the White House confirmed in an announcement published in the Federal Register on Thursday. This figure marks a dramatic 94% reduction from the 125,000 limit established last year under President Joe Biden.
The White House asserted that the considerably reduced number of overall refugee admissions is “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest,” but offered no further explanation.
The notice also stated that admissions will “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa,” as well as other victims of “illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.” It referenced an executive order the President issued in February, in which Trump condemned South Africa for what he described as “countless” policies restricting opportunities for Afrikaners and fueling “disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.” Afrikaners, descendants of primarily Dutch colonial settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600s, governed the country from 1948 to 1994 and imposed racial separation laws known as apartheid.
South African officials have vehemently disputed claims that Afrikaners are victims of racial persecution.
“There are sufficient structures available within South Africa to address concerns of discrimination. Moreover, even if there are allegations of discrimination, it is our view that these do not meet the threshold of persecution required under domestic and international refugee law,” the South African Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation stated in a declaration earlier this year, arguing that U.S. efforts to resettle South Africans as refugees appeared “entirely politically motivated and designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy.”
On the first day of his second term, Trump suspended all refugee admissions to the U.S, asserting in his Executive Order that the country “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.” Yet, just over two weeks later, he announced an exception for white South Africans, prompting allegations that they were being discriminated against.
In May, a chartered plane carrying 50 Afrikaners landed in the U.S. This action represented a significant departure from the country’s typical refugee policy—refugees entering the U.S. are generally vetted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which refers individuals fleeing persecution and violence in their home nations to safer countries. That office did not vet the 50 Afrikaners who arrived in the U.S. that month.