The Trump administration will let in just 7,500 refugees this year, marking the lowest cap on admissions in United States history, according to a Thursday federal notice.
The Trump administration said refugee status will “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa … and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”
The latest refugee limit accounts for the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. The Biden administration set the previous year’s limit at a whopping 125,000, according to The New York Times.
When President Donald Trump reentered the White House, he paused refugee admissions, citing the “record levels of migration” flows under the Biden administration.
In February, Trump signed an executive order freezing aid to South Africa after it enacted a law “to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”
Julius Malema, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa, earlier chanted “shoot to kill” and “kill the boer” at a political rally in reference to the white Afrikaner population. At another event, he said that his political movement is “cutting the throat of whiteness.”
South Africa’s Julius Malema, the party leader of the EFF calls for killing white people:
“Shoot to kiII. KiII the Boer, the farmer”pic.twitter.com/vFjqJ9l8GR https://t.co/sxzS0d0Dn4
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 22, 2025
The U.S. welcomed the first group of Afrikaner refugees in May.
At the time, Trump accused the South African government of committing a “genocide” against its white citizens.
“It is a genocide that is taking place that you people don’t want to write about,” Trump told reporters at the White House at the time.
“It’s a terrible thing that’s taking place and farmers are being killed,” he added. “They happen to be white, but whether they are white or black makes no difference to me.”
Democrats, however, have expressed outrage over the Trump administration’s acceptance of white South African refugees, accusing officials of prioritizing them because of the color of their skin.
The issue became a focal point of a Congressional hearing in May that featured Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Can you have a different standard based upon the color of somebody’s skin? Would that be acceptable?” Democrat Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine asked Rubio at the time.
“I’m not the one arguing that, apparently you are because you don’t like the fact that they’re white and that’s why they’re coming,” Rubio shot back in response.
“You’re the one that’s talking about the color of their skin, not me. These are people whose farms were burned down and they were killed because of the color of their skin,” the Secretary of State went on to add.
The Episcopal Church’s refugee resettlement wing, which has resettled migrants in the U.S. for decades, announced in May that it would refuse to help settle the Afrikaners for explicitly racial reasons.
The organization also pledged to cancel its existing resettlement contract with the federal government over the controversy.
