Trump Sets Refugee Admissions Cap, Down From Biden’s 125,000
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Refugee admissions are set to plummet under President Donald Trump.
Just 17,500 people will be admitted next year, most of them “Afrikaners from South Africa.”
The Biden administration’s target was 125,000 in its last year in office.
The Trump administration plans to cap next year’s refugee inflow at 17,500 people, down from the 125,000 target set under President Joe Biden.
The State Department laid out the plan in a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday, a week before the 2027 fiscal year opens in October. Admissions will “primarily be Afrikaners from South Africa,” the notice says, naming the Afrikaans-speaking white minority descended from Dutch and French settlers.
Biden’s agencies set the 125,000 target in his last year in office. Resettlement contractors put the long-run average at roughly 92,000 a year since the program started in 1980. Trump’s first term bottomed out at 15,000.
The administration set last year’s ceiling at 7,500, then lifted it to 17,500 after declaring that unforeseen developments in South Africa had created an emergency. Next year’s number holds at that level.
The United States imposed new sanctions on South Africa.
In a notice to Congress, they wrote, “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.”
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.
