Nicolai Haugsted
Trump administration plans to prioritize Afrikaners while thousands of other refugees remain excluded.
America’s refugee program could soon reopen its doors considerably wider – but not equally for everyone waiting outside.
President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed admitting as many as 17,500 refugees during the next 12 months, according to Reuters via. a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday.
Most of those places are expected to go to South Africans from the Afrikaner community.
The proposal marks another major shift in a refugee system that Trump largely shut down shortly after returning to the White House in January 2025. It also places his controversial claims about the treatment of Afrikaners in South Africa firmly at the heart of US immigration policy.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Afrikaners face racial persecution in South Africa, a characterization rejected by the country’s government.
Washington nevertheless created a special pathway for Afrikaners earlier in Trump’s second term, and the new proposal would dramatically expand that approach.
The State Department notice sent to lawmakers said the administration expects the 17,500-person ceiling to consist “primarily” of Afrikaners.
Officials also offered an unusually explicit explanation for why the group is being prioritized.
The administration “anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for US citizens,” according to the congressional notice.
Resettling refugees under the proposed ceiling is expected to cost approximately $500 million.
The numbers have already changed dramatically
America’s refugee system looked very different only two years ago.
More than 100,000 refugees from dozens of countries were admitted during the 2024 fiscal year under former President Joe Biden.
Trump suspended refugee admissions after taking office in January 2025, arguing that further admissions should proceed only when they served US interests.
Afrikaners soon became a notable exception.
State Department figures cited in the congressional notice show that nearly 3,000 refugees had entered the United States during the current fiscal year through August. All but three were South African.
Such figures mean the transformation of the program is already well underway even before the proposed 17,500-person ceiling takes effect.
South Africa rejects Trump’s persecution claims
Trump’s rationale has generated a diplomatic fight with Pretoria.
The president has repeatedly said Afrikaners are being persecuted because of their race. South Africa’s government rejects that characterization and has said claims that the community faces persecution are not supported by the facts.
South Africa’s cabinet reiterated its position in July, saying white South Africans who had moved to the United States under claims of a “white genocide” were free to return and would not face political persecution.
Relations between Washington and Pretoria have remained strained over the issue.
South African International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola again accused the US administration this month of mischaracterizing the country’s domestic policies and disputed portrayals of Afrikaners as a persecuted minority.
Trump’s administration has maintained its position and continued prioritizing Afrikaner applicants.
Criticism inside the United States has focused not only on who is being admitted, but also on everyone who is not.
Refugee organizations argue that people escaping wars, political repression and other forms of persecution elsewhere are effectively being pushed aside while one South African community receives preferential access.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of refugee organization Global Refuge, sharply criticized the proposal.
“A refugee program that centers one group and sidelines all others is an abdication of our global humanitarian leadership and an abandonment of thousands of vulnerable families,” she said.
The contrast with the previous administration is particularly stark.
Biden’s final full fiscal year saw refugees arrive from countries across several regions of the world. Trump’s proposed system would operate with a much smaller ceiling while reserving most places for one population.
