USA President Trump Administration Says most Refugees Accepted in 2027
The Trump USA administration has informed Congress it intends to accept 17,500 refugees, USA primarily White South Africans, in fiscal year 2027, according to a report submitted Tuesday and obtained by CNN.
President Donald Trump has previously said that nearly all refugees admitted to the United States would be White South Africans, radically reshaping a decades-long program that had largely serviced people fleeing war, persecution or other dangers.
Refugee advocates argue that the administration’s focus on one group has excluded vulnerable populations worldwide. South African authorities have strongly denied claims of White genocide.
In its report to Congress, the State Department said admissions will “primarily be Afrikaners from South Africa,” arguing that they face discrimination in their home country.
“The United States anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners,” the report states.
Resettlement under the proposed ceiling is expected to cost approximately $500 million, according to the report.
The administration increased the refugee cap for South Africans earlier this year to 17,500 from a limit of 7,500 for all refugees, informing Congress of the change through an emergency determination.
CNN previously reported the refugee program, largely shuttered for the rest of the world, has sparked diplomatic spats, prompted a scramble to open a processing site in South Africa, generated highly unusual requests from applicants and produced high denial rates, due in part to criminal records among some applicants, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the USA program.
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.
The Trump administration is planning to welcome up to 17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday and obtained by CBS News.
The State Department informed congressional officials that the Trump administration is planning to allocate 17,500 refugee spots for fiscal year 2027, and that they will "primarily" go to Afrikaners, who President Trump has claimed are being oppressed for being White. Fiscal year 2027 starts in October.
While the second Trump administration has effectively shut down the U.S. refugee resettlement program for most people fleeing persecution and violence around the world, it has made an exemption for Afrikaners, resettling thousands of them over the past year and a half.
Trump administration officials have portrayed Afrikaners as victims of racial oppression in post-apartheid South Africa. The South African government has consistently denied persecuting the ethnic minority, made up of descendants of European settlers, mostly from the Netherlands.
"Afrikaners face the seizure of agricultural property without compensation; government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business; and hateful rhetoric fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored minorities," the State Department said in its notice to Congress.
Last week, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on South African officials who it said were responsible for discriminating against Afrikaners.
The Afrikaner resettlement effort is projected to cost the U.S. government $500 million, the notice to Congress said.
"The United States anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners," the notice read.
Mr. Trump has alleged that Afrikaners face a "genocide" in South Africa. In a tense Oval Office meeting last year, he confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the claims, showing him a video that spotlighted murders of farmers in the country.
Those claims have been strongly disputed. A "60 Minutes" report earlier this year featured Afrikaners who rejected the notion that White people are facing a "genocide" and said murders on farms were linked to a broader crime problem in South Africa that harms members of all races.
Posted on 2026/09/23 08:57 AM