Trump caps refugee admissions at 7,500
The Trump administration will limit the number of refugees admitted to the United States to 7,500 and prioritize white South Africans.
The move, announced in a release Thursday, is effective for the next fiscal year and marks a dramatic cut from the previous limit of 125,000 set by former President Joe Biden.
The reason for the cut was not specified, but the announcement said it was “justified by humanitarian concerns or in the national interest.”
In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), saying it would allow U.S. officials to prioritize national security and public safety.
The announcement, published on the Federal Register’s website, said the 7,500 admissions would be allocated “primarily” to Afrikaner South Africans and “other victims of unlawful or unfair discrimination in their own country.”
In the Oval Office in May, Trump criticized South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and claimed that white farmers in his country were being killed and “oppressed.”
The White House also played a video said to show the burial sites of murdered white farmers. Trump said he did not know where in South Africa the scene was filmed.
The tense meeting took place just days after the United States granted asylum to 60 Afrikaners. It was later revealed that the videos were scenes from the 2020 protest, where the crosses represented farmers killed over several years.
On his first day in office on January 20, Trump said the US would suspend USRAP, reflecting the US’s inability to “welcome large numbers of immigrants, especially refugees, into communities in a way that does not jeopardize the availability of resources for Americans” and “to protect their safety and security.”
The US policy of admitting white South Africans has led to accusations from refugee advocacy groups that they are being treated unfairly.
Some have argued that the United States is now effectively closed to other persecuted groups or people facing potential harm in their own countries, or even former allies who assist US forces in Afghanistan or the Middle East.
“This decision not only lowers the refugee admissions ceiling,” Global Refuge CEO and president Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said in a statement Thursday. he said. “It lowers our moral standing.”
“At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, the concentration of the vast majority of admissions on a single group undermines the purpose and credibility of the program,” he added.
The South African government has yet to respond to the latest announcement.
During the Oval Office meeting, President Ramaphosa said only that he hoped Trump officials would listen to South Africans on the issue, and later said he believed there was “doubt and disbelief about all of this.” [Trump’s] HEAD”.
