Trump administration unveils plan to admit 17,500 white refugees from South Africa
LOS ANGELES:- The Trump administration plans to set the refugee admission cap at 17,500 for the coming 12 months. According to a notification sent to the US Congress on Tuesday, the refugees admitted under this plan will consist “primarily” of individuals from the white ‘Afrikaner’ ethnic minority community in South Africa.
President Trump has been claiming that Afrikaners in South Africa—a country with a Black majority—are facing persecution based on race. However, the South African government has categorically denied these allegations.
Upon assuming office in January 2025, Trump suspended the entire U.S. refugee admissions process, stating that the refugee program would only be restarted if it served the national interest. A few weeks later, he initiated efforts to bring Afrikaners to the United States. Refugee rights activists have sharply criticized this move, arguing that it prioritizes a single specific group while overlooking people facing violence and persecution in other parts of the world.
A notification sent by the U.S. State Department to congressional officials states that “South Africa’s Afrikaners are expected to fully integrate into the U.S., thereby saving American taxpayers’ money and resources.” The proposed refugee resettlement program is estimated to cost approximately $500 million.
According to data from the State Department through August, all but three of the approximately 3,000 individuals admitted as refugees during the current fiscal year—which ends on September 30, 2026—were South African citizens. In contrast, during the 2024 fiscal year, the Biden administration resettled more than 100,000 refugees from dozens of countries in the United States.
“A refugee program that sidelines everyone else to prioritize a single group undermines our global humanitarian leadership,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in a statement. “This is an action that leaves thousands of vulnerable families stranded.”
