Trump limits refugee admissions to 7,500

The Trump administration will limit the number of refugees admitted to the US to 7,500 and prioritize white South Africans.

The move, announced in a notice published Thursday, will apply to the next fiscal year and marks a dramatic reduction from the previous limit of 125,000 set by former President Joe Biden.

No reason was given for the layoff, but the notice said it was “justified on humanitarian grounds or otherwise in the national interest.”

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to suspend the US Refugee Readmission Program, or USRAP, which he said would allow US officials to prioritize national security and public safety.

The announcement, published on the Federal Register website, said the 7,500 admissions would be “predominantly” allocated to Afrikaner South Africans and “other victims of unlawful or unjust discrimination in their respective countries”.

In the Oval Office in May, Trump criticized South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and said white farmers in his nation were being killed and “persecuted.”

The White House also released a video it says shows graves of murdered white farmers. Trump said he did not know where in South Africa the scene was filmed.

The tense meeting came just days after the US granted asylum to 60 Afrikaners. It was later revealed that the videos were scenes from a 2020 protest in which the crosses represented farmers killed over several years.

On his first day in office on January 20, Trump said the US would end USRAP to reflect the lack of “the ability of the US to absorb large numbers of migrants, and refugees in particular, into its communities in a way that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans” and “protects their safety and security”.

The US policy of accepting white South Africans has already drawn accusations of unfair treatment from refugee advocacy groups.

Some argue that the US is now effectively closed to other persecuted groups or people facing potential harm in their home country, and even former allies who have helped US forces in Afghanistan or the Middle East.

“This decision not only lowers the cap on refugee admissions,” Global Refuge CEO and President Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said Thursday. “It lowers our moral standing.”

“At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions in one group undermines the program’s purpose and credibility,” she added.

The South African government has yet to respond to the latest announcement.

During the Oval Office meeting, President Ramaphosa said only that he hoped Trump’s officials would listen to South Africans on the matter and later said he believed there was “doubt and disbelief about all this in (Trump’s) head.”