US prioritises white South Africans

As it caps refugee admissions for the coming year at 7 500.

US President Donald Trump is cutting the limit on refugees the US resettles to 7 500 for the upcoming fiscal year, while prioritising white South Africans – a sharp break from the nation’s traditional policy of accepting tens of thousands fleeing conflict and persecution annually.

The decision poosted Thursday in the Federal Register said the new policy is justified by “humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest”.

Read: Trump’s Afrikaners are South African opportunists, not refugees [May 2025] Trump looks to slash refugee count, will favour Afrikaners [Oct 2025]

It’s a steep decrease from last year’s ceiling of 125 000, set under former president Joe Biden, a Democrat. Bloomberg previously reported the administration was considering shrinking the cap to 7 500.

The cap is the latest effort by the administration to slash migration, both illegal and legal.

The US refugee programme has long received bipartisan support, but has come under attack by the Republican president and his allies as a vulnerable back door that lets criminals and terrorists into the country. People who apply for refugee status must go through a lengthy vetting process before being accepted.

The president also signed a determination transferring the United States Programme of Initial Refugee Resettlement from the State Department to the Department of Health and Human Services, run by Robert F Kennedy Jr.

‘Politicising a humanitarian programme’

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Groups that resettle new refugees in the US have been hard hit by Trump’s limits, and advocates decried his decision on Thursday.

“By privileging Afrikaners while continuing to ban thousands of refugees who have already been vetted and approved, the administration is once again politicising a humanitarian programme,” International Refugee Assistance Project President Sharif Aly said in a statement.

Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office and only a handful have been admitted since then.

The administration has mostly focused on taking in white South Africans, who Trump has claimed, without evidence, are facing a “genocide” at the hands of the country’s black majority government.

Read: SA hails ‘constructive’ US trade negotiations [Sep 2025] Trade negotiations with the US now ‘based on text’ – Ramaphosa [Oct 2025]

Several other refugees have arrived under court order in a case demanding entry for those who were en route to the US when resettlement was suspended.

A ‘moral collapse’

“The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa,” the register notice reads, “and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”

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It does not, however, specifically mention Afghans or other groups escaping war, famine or targeted crackdowns.

Shawn VanDiver, founder of nonprofit group AfghanEvac which supports Afghans who assisted the US war effort, called the policy “a moral collapse that abandons the very allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with our troops.”

Trump in February signed an executive order directing the government to cut aid to South Africa and promote resettlement of Afrikaners who it says face “government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation”.

The South African government and several Afrikaner groups have denied the allegations.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attempt to debunk claims made by Trump and other US officials led to a tense Oval Office meeting in May.

Read: Trump lectures Ramaphosa in latest Oval Office ambush Trump’s ambush of Ramaphosa leaves SA reeling

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