President Donald Trump has reportedly announced a new ceiling for refugee admissions, setting it at just 7,500 for the coming year — the lowest figure since the U.S. refugee program began in 1980. The administration also directed that most of the limited slots be reserved for white South Africans, a move Trump says is intended to prioritize victims of discrimination abroad.
The cap, published in the Federal Register on Thursday, represents a sharp break from previous administrations. Under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the United States typically accepted between 70,000 and 80,000 refugees annually. President Biden had raised the cap to 125,000 during his term, though actual admissions fell short. The new limit is also smaller than the 11,814 refugees accepted during Trump’s first term, which at the time marked a historic low.
“The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa pursuant to Executive Order 14204, and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands,” Trump wrote in his notice. He has previously described Afrikaners, an ethnic minority descended largely from Dutch settlers, as facing “hateful rhetoric” and “disproportionate violence” in their country.
Dan Scavino, a senior adviser to Trump, defended the policy as “a targeted, moral response” to what he called “ongoing anti-white violence in South Africa.” The administration has already accepted small numbers of Afrikaner refugees in recent years, arguing they meet the legal definition of persecution under U.S. and international standards.
But critics, including several refugee advocacy groups, condemned the move as a politicization of humanitarian policy.
South Africa’s government has rejected Trump’s claims about the Afrikaner population, calling them “completely false.” Officials in Pretoria have previously accused Trump of spreading misinformation about land reform and racial tensions in the country.
For Trump, the order is consistent with a broader effort to scale back immigration — both legal and illegal — and to redefine the refugee system around selective humanitarian priorities. Refugees are among the most heavily vetted immigrants to enter the U.S., undergoing years of background checks and security screenings.
The decision comes as the federal government continues to rebuild the refugee system after years of decline, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. During Biden’s first year in office, refugee admissions fell to 11,411, the lowest ever recorded. But by the end of his term, the program had recovered, admitting more than 100,000 refugees in a single year.
So far this year, about 27,000 refugees have been resettled in the United States — many whose applications began during the previous administration. Trump’s new ceiling, once in effect, would mark a significant reversal of that trend and signal a renewed tightening of America’s borders, with the White House emphasizing that its focus will now be on “those truly persecuted — not those merely seeking opportunity.”
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