WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is restricting the number of refugees admitted annually to the United States to 7,500 and they will mostly be white South Africans, a dramatic drop announced Thursday that effectively suspends America’s traditional role as a haven for those fleeing war and persecution.
The move cements a major shift in policy toward refugees that aligns with the Republican administration’s broader goals of keeping out foreigners whom it deems a risk to the nation’s security or a threat to U.S. jobs. That shift has meant increased immigration enforcement, in cities and at borders and entry points, in what’s become a vastly changed landscape in a country long seen as a beacon for migrants.
No reason was given for the new numbers, which were published in a notice on the Federal Register and are a steep decrease from last year’s ceiling of 125,000 set under Democratic President Joe Biden. The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.
The notice said the admission of the 7,500 refugees during the 2026 budget year, which began Oct. 1, was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.” It made no mention of any other specific groups to be admitted besides the white South Africans, known also as Afrikaners.
“Other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands” will be considered as refugees, according to the notice, which gave no specifics on who that could entail.
The lower cap represents another blow for the long-standing refugee program that until recently enjoyed bipartisan support.
Groups denounce the historically low cap
Groups that work to resettle refugees said the announcement was an abdication of the country’s historic role in welcoming refugees from around the world.
“This decision doesn’t just lower the refugee admissions ceiling. It lowers our moral standing,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge, one of the nationwide resettlement agencies. “To concentrate the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program’s purpose as well as its credibility.”
Trump suspended the refugee program on his first day in office and since then only a trickle have entered the country, mostly white South Africans. Some refugees have also been admitted as part of a court case seeking to allow entry to refugees who were overseas and in the process of coming to the U.S. when the program was suspended.
The International Refugee Assistance Project, which sued over the program’s suspension, said in a statement that refugees waiting to be admitted to the U.S. have already gone through rigorous security checks and are stuck in dangerous conditions.
“By privileging Afrikaners while continuing to ban thousands of refugees who have already been vetted and approved, the administration is once again politicizing a humanitarian program,” said the group’s president, Sharif Aly.
Other nationalities, including Afghans, are left out
The administration announced the program for the Afrikaners in February, saying that white South African farmers faced discrimination and violence at home. The South African government strongly denied it.
Presidents have the authority to set the cap on refugee admissions as they see fit, often taking input from the State Department or consulting with the refugee resettlement agencies. This cap would set a historic low of refugees admitted to the U.S. since the program’s inception in 1980.
During his first term, Trump progressively set the cap increasingly lower each year until it reach 15,000 in the last year of his administration.
The determinations usually lay out which regions of the world the refugees will come from over the upcoming year.
Left out from Thursday’s notice were Afghans, many of whom have been trying to flee the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal there in 2021.
A separate program for Afghans who worked closely with the U.S. government is still admitting Afghans into the country. But tens of thousands of others who also contributed to the U.S. mission there have been trying to emigrate to America via the refugee program and this year have been largely shut out.
Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, which advocates for resettling at-risk Afghans, described the decision Thursday as a “horrendous betrayal.”
“I think we need to face facts. This means that the president and the White House … are not going to allow Afghan refugees to come here,” he said in a video posted on Instagram. “This is a really bad day.”
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the notice was published in the Federal Register, not the Federal Registry.
By REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press
