Overview
- A document dated September 30 sets the annual refugee ceiling at roughly 7,500 and states admissions will mainly go to Afrikaners and to other people labeled victims of illegal or unjust discrimination.
- The cap marks a steep drop from roughly 100,000 under President Joe Biden, in a program that has admitted more than two million people since 1980.
- President Donald Trump issued a February 7 decree asserting dispossession and persecution of Afrikaners, and about fifty were admitted in May, drawing a formal protest from South Africa.
- Advocates including the American Immigration Council and Global Refuge denounced the plan, warning it would skew the program toward white applicants and undermine its humanitarian purpose during crises in countries such as Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Sudan.
- The move extends a broader tightening of refugee and immigration policy under Trump, including foreign-aid cuts and the rollback of temporary protections for nationals of Afghanistan, Haiti, and Venezuela.