Trump Administration Weighs Expanding Refugee Admissions for White South Africans

The Trump administration was weighing a major expansion of refugee admissions for white South Africans, a move that would give more room to Afrikaners while the United States keeps its overall refugee pipeline at one of the lowest levels in modern history. People familiar with the internal discussions said officials had talked about adding 10,000 slots to the current 7,500-person ceiling, which would lift the fiscal 2026 cap to 17,500.

The shift would deepen a policy contradiction at the center of Trump’s refugee agenda. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was built to protect people fleeing persecution from many regions, but the administration has used it almost exclusively for white South Africans since Trump returned to office and paused refugee admissions from around the world. Executive Order 14163, issued on January 20, 2025 and effective January 27, 2025, suspended refugee entry under the program except for narrow exceptions.

That has left little room for anyone else. State Department data show about 4,500 South Africans were admitted as refugees in the first six months of the fiscal year, while only three Afghans accounted for the other new arrivals. Reuters reported that the first group of 59 white South Africans arrived in the United States on May 12, 2025, and later reports said nearly 5,000 Afrikaners had entered by early April 2026. Even before any expansion, the Trump administration appeared likely to exceed its own 7,500-person cap.

The numbers mark a sharp break from the broader history of U.S. refugee policy. Congress passed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act in 1975 and set aside $405 million for evacuation and resettlement from South Vietnam and Cambodia. Five years later, the Refugee Act of 1980 created the modern framework for admissions, after roughly 300,000 refugees were brought in through presidential action between 1975 and 1979. Under Joe Biden, the ceiling stood at 125,000 in the prior fiscal year.

Trump administration officials have said Afrikaners face race-based persecution in majority-Black South Africa, a claim the South African government has rejected. South Africa’s foreign ministry said the program rested on a factually inaccurate premise and disregarded South African constitutional processes. The White House referred questions to the State Department, whose spokesperson did not confirm or deny the expansion talks and said any change to the fiscal 2026 cap would be made later through the proper channels.

The dispute has become another strain in the broader U.S.-South Africa relationship. President Cyril Ramaphosa recently appointed Roelf Meyer, a veteran of the apartheid-era transition, as South Africa’s next ambassador to Washington after a long vacancy, underscoring how much the refugee fight has come to symbolize the wider diplomatic chill between Pretoria and Washington.