US President Donald Trump set the refugee admissions ceiling at 7,500 for fiscal year 2026, the lowest cap on record, a White House document published yesterday said, part of a broader effort to reshape refugee policies in the US and worldwide.
Trump said in an annual refugee determination dated to September 30 that admissions would be focused largely on South Africans from the country’s white Afrikaner ethnic minority.
Trump has claimed Afrikaners face persecution based on their race in the Black-majority country, allegations the South African government has denied.
Trump paused all US refugee admissions when he took office in January, saying they could only be restarted if they were established to be in the best interest of the United States.
Weeks later, he launched an effort to bring in Afrikaners, sparking criticism from refugee supporters. Only 138 South Africans had entered the US by early September, Reuters reported at the time.
In the determination published yesterday, Trump said his administration would consider bringing in ‘other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands’.
An internal document drafted by US government officials in April suggested the administration could also prioritise bringing in Europeans.
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