The Trump administration on Thursday introduced it might set the bottom refugee admissions cap in U.S. historical past, allocating simply 7,500 spots for this fiscal yr, largely for Afrikaners who it has claimed are dealing with racial discrimination in South Africa for being White.
The earlier lowest refugee ceiling was set by the primary Trump administration in 2020, when it allotted 15,000 spots for fiscal yr 2021.
The announcement Thursday is the most recent effort by Mr. Trump and his high aides to dramatically cut back the decades-old U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, a humanitarian coverage for susceptible folks fleeing battle and violence the world over that when loved strong bipartisan assist.
Mr. Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program hours after taking workplace for a second time earlier this yr, citing strains on American communities receiving the refugees and considerations in regards to the vetting course of. Weeks later, his administration made an exemption for Afrikaners, calling them victims of racial oppression.
In an order posted on the federal authorities’s journal of laws, Mr. Trump mentioned the 7,500 refugee spots for fiscal yr 2026 would “primarily be allotted amongst Afrikaners” and “different victims of unlawful or unjust discrimination of their respective homelands.” Fiscal yr 2026 began on Oct. 1 and culminates on the finish of September 2026.
The South African authorities has vehemently denied Afrikaners and different White South Africans are being persecuted. Earlier than the Nineteen Nineties, White South Africans enforced a brutal system of apartheid over the nation’s Black majority.
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in South Africa made up of descendants of European settlers and colonists, largely from the Netherlands, who first arrived there within the 1600s. The Trump administration welcomed the primary group of Afrikaners granted refugee standing in Might.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP
The prioritization of Afrikaners — whereas refugees from locations like Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sudan affected by ethnic violence and armed battle are being blocked from getting into the U.S. — has led to accusations of preferential remedy amongst refugee advocates.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of World Refuge, one among a number of nationwide teams that historically have labored with the U.S. authorities to resettle refugees, mentioned Mr. Trump’s resolution “lowers our ethical standing.”
“At a time of disaster in international locations starting from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and past, concentrating the overwhelming majority of admissions on one group undermines this system’s function in addition to its credibility,” she added.
Formally created in 1980, the U.S. refugee program was designed to supply a protected harbor to folks overseas fleeing persecution due to their race, faith, political beliefs or membership in a social group.
Earlier than the second Trump administration took workplace, refugees had been sometimes referred to the U.S. by United Nations officers and spent months or years in third-party international locations present process interviews, in addition to safety and medical checks, earlier than being granted entry into the U.S. The method is distinct from the asylum system, which may be accessed by foreigners already on American soil, together with those that enter the U.S. illegally.
Over the previous many years, most of these admitted into the U.S. as refugees have come from international locations in Africa and Asia affected by battle, ethnic strife or repression of minority teams, State Division figures present.
After refugee admissions plummeted to a report low of 11,000 in fiscal yr 2021 — largely resulting from Trump-era cuts and the impression of the COVID-19 pandemic — the Biden administration dramatically expanded this system.
In fiscal yr 2024, the Biden administration welcomed greater than 100,000 refugees, the very best stage for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, based on authorities knowledge. Officers stopped publishing refugee admissions knowledge after Mr. Trump returned to the White Home.
