Trump administration tells Congress it will admit 17,500 white South African refugees in 2027

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to limit the number of refugees admitted to the country in 2027 to 17,500 mostly white South Africans, the administration told Congress Tuesday, as it continues to transform a program that at one point served as a pathway to safety for people fleeing war and strife from countries around the world.

In a notice to Congress obtained by The Associated Press, the administration said the white South Africans faced seizures of their land and other forms of persecution and would be likely to assimilate when they come to America. The South African government has repeatedly rejected the idea that the white South Africans, who are Afrikaners, are a persecuted minority in the home country.

The Trump administration has dramatically altered a refugee program that historically enjoyed strong bipartisan support as it welcomed tens of thousands of refugees from countries around the world to new lives in America, and instead the administration has transformed it into a vehicle to resettle white South Africans in America.

The administration told Congress in the announcement that it intended to spend about $500 million to resettle the new arrivals to the U.S.

Organizations that have historically worked to resettle refugees in new homes in America criticized the administration’s decision to once again limit the program to white South Africans.

“For more than four decades, America’s refugee program has provided a lifesaving pathway for people fleeing violence and persecution,” said Naomi Steinberg, HIAS vice president for refugee and immigration policy and advocacy, in a statement. “But again, this administration is diminishing and distorting this legacy in service of its political whims. That is why we will never stop speaking out for a return to a program that welcomes refugees from around the world who have been persecuted because of who they are and what they believe.”

Presidents set the cap on how many refugees the U.S. will approve through the program each year, and historically, they’ve allocated those numbers across various geographic regions while factoring in wars or conflicts that spark humanitarian needs around the globe. HIAS said an average of 92,000 people a year have been admitted to the U.S. since the program was launched in 1980.

Last year, the Trump administration initially set the cap at 7,500 — again predominantly Afrikaners — but later increased the total to 17,500 after it said that “unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation.”

During his first administration, Trump slashed the number of refugees approved every year. The Biden administration built the system back up, setting a goal of admitting 125,000 refugees in Biden’s last year in office.

When Trump once again returned to the White House, he immediately suspended the refugee program, stranding people around the world who had been slated to come to the U.S. Then the administration reopened the program, but limited it to white South Africans.

Afrikaners are the descendants of mainly Dutch and French colonial settlers who first arrived in South Africa in the 17th century. They are just one of South Africa’s white minorities, which also include South Africans of British descent.

Afrikaners were at the heart of the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa that lasted from 1948 until 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected as the country’s first Black president in the first democratic, all-race elections. Their leading role in apartheid has led to some lingering racial tensions, but Afrikaners have generally embraced their country’s new multiracial democracy just like most other South Africans.