&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump sets refugee cap at record low of 7,500, mostly for Afrikaners, in huge cut from Biden era")
The Trump administration announced on Thursday the setting of the lowest refugee admissions cap in US history, allocating just 7,500 spots for this fiscal year, mostly for Afrikaners it claims are facing racial discrimination in South Africa for being White. The previous lowest refugee ceiling was set by the previous Trump administration in 2020, when it allocated 15,000 spots for fiscal year 2021. The fiscal year 2026 in the US started on Oct. 1 and culminates at the end of September 2026. The announcement is the latest effort by Trump and his top aides to dramatically scale back the decades-old US Refugee Admissions Program, a humanitarian policy for vulnerable people fleeing war and violence across the world.
Trump signed an executive order suspending the US Refugee Admissions Programme, or USRAP, hours after taking office this year in January, citing strains on American communities and concerns about the vetting process. However, his administration made an exemption for Afrikaners, calling them victims of racial oppression.
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Afrikaners are an ethnic group in South Africa made up of descendants of European settlers and colonists, mostly from the Netherlands, who first arrived there in the 1600s. The South African government denies Afrikaners and other White South Africans are being persecuted.
In an order posted on the federal government’s journal of regulations, Trump said the 7,500 refugee spots for fiscal year 2026 would “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners” and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”
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The notice posted to the website of the Federal Register said the 7,500 admissions would "primarily" be allocated to Afrikaner South Africans and "other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands".
Refugee admissions dipped to a record low of 11,000 in fiscal year 2021—mostly due to Trump-era cuts and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Joe Biden administration dramatically expanded the programme and in fiscal year 2024, welcomed more than 100,000 refugees, the highest level since the 1990s.
The US policy of accepting white South Africans has already prompted accusations of unfair treatment from refugee advocacy groups.
