US Slashes Refugee Admissions To Record Low 7,500, Prioritising White South Africans

The Trump administration has announced a drastic reduction in the number of refugees the United States (US) will accept in 2026, marking a record low and sparking widespread criticism.

Under the new policy, only 7,500 refugees will be welcomed into the country — a significant drop from the more than 100,000 accepted annually under former President Joe Biden.

The White House confirmed that most of those selected will be white South Africans and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”

A memo from the administration stated, “The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa.”

Priority Shift Sparks Backlash From Immigration Advocates

Republican President Donald Trump, who previously halted refugee admissions after taking office, has made an exception for white South Africans — despite the South African government’s insistence that they are not victims of persecution.

Earlier this year, around 50 Afrikaners — descendants of early European settlers in South Africa — were resettled in the United States. Trump, who campaigned on a platform of strict immigration controls, has also signed an executive order suspending the US Refugee Admissions Program.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, condemned the move, saying on X, “Now it will be used as a pathway for White immigration. What a downfall for a crown jewel of America’s international humanitarian programs.”

Critics Warn Policy Undermines Humanitarian Mission

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, called the administration’s decision a betrayal of the program’s founding principles.

“For more than four decades, the US refugee program has been a lifeline for families fleeing war, persecution, and repression,” she said. “At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program’s purpose as well as its credibility.”

Alongside the refugee cuts, the administration has moved to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of countries including Afghanistan, Haiti, and Venezuela. The TPS program shields foreign nationals from deportation when returning home would be unsafe due to war, natural disaster, or other crises.

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Trump has defended his policy, claiming that Afrikaners are escaping a “terrible situation” and even describing it as “genocide” — an allegation widely dismissed as baseless.

White South Africans, who make up about 7.3% of the country’s population, generally have a higher standard of living than the Black majority. They still own roughly two-thirds of South Africa’s farmland and, on average, earn three times more than Black citizens.

Historically, apartheid-era governments led by Afrikaners enforced policies that systematically denied Black South Africans political and economic rights until the system was dismantled in 1994.

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