Under President Trump’s new policy, the number of refugees allowed into the country will drop from 125,000 to 7,500. The majority will be white South Africans, and the Afghans who supported US troops will be left in limbo.
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The Trump administration will limit the number of refugees admitted in 2026 to just 7,500, the lowest on record, and the majority of those admitted will be white South Africans, according to a notice posted Oct. 30 in the federal register.
That’s a sharp drop from the 125,000 annual refugee admissions set by former President Joe Biden the year before under the once bipartisan U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which resettles people from around the world fleeing war and persecution.
President Donald Trump suspended the program shortly after taking office in January. The new decision sets the lowest cap since the program began more than 40 years ago, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
The memo says it is justified by “humanitarian concerns or in the national interest.” It added that admissions would focus on “Africans of South African origin” and “victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands”.
President Trump has claimed that Africans face persecution because of their race in the black-majority country, a claim that the South African government denies. According to Reuters, the administration had brought more than 130 South Africans to the United States by early September.
The tougher restrictions for 2026 reflect the Trump administration’s larger efforts to curtail legal immigration. Trump administration officials last month urged other countries to roll back asylum protections.
“My honest view is that America is taking in too many immigrants today, in part because of Biden’s border invasion, but also because of a lot of bad immigration policies. That’s a fundamental reality,” Vice President J.D. Vance said at a rally in Mississippi on October 29, according to the USA TODAY Network’s Clarion-Ledger.
The new refugee restrictions drew criticism from refugee advocates who have been fighting to get the administration to resettle thousands of already vetted and approved refugees who remain stuck in the country or in third countries since President Trump suspended the program.
“This decision makes painfully clear that the Trump administration cares more about politics than protection. By privileging Afrikaners while continuing to ban thousands of already vetted and approved refugees, the administration is once again politicizing humanitarian programs,” said Sharif Ali, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
The move also drew condemnation from advocates who have long fought to resettle Afghans who accompanied or supported U.S. military missions during the war. Some of them are currently stranded in countries such as Pakistan and Qatar, but fear retaliation by the Taliban if they return home.
“This is an unprecedented dismantling of America’s refugee program and a moral breakdown that abandons the very allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with our troops,” said Sean Vandiver, founder of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of veterans, nonprofits, and current and former national security and intelligence personnel.
In other actions listed on the registry, the White House announced it would transfer oversight of refugee assistance programs from the State Department to the Department of Health and Human Services.
contribution: Reuters
