Trump administration to admit primarily Afrikaners under new refugee proposal

The Trump administration plans to set a refugee admissions ceiling of 17,500 for the next 12 months, primarily admitting white Afrikaners from South Africa, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday. President Trump claims Afrikaners face racial persecution, a claim denied by the South African government. This initiative follows Trump's 2025 pause on all US refugee admissions and has drawn criticism from refugee advocates. The State Department notice stated that Afrikaners are expected to "fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for US citizens." The proposed resettlement is estimated to cost around $500 million. In the current fiscal year, nearly all of the 3,000 refugees admitted were South Africans, a significant shift from the Biden administration's admission of over 100,000 refugees from various countries in fiscal year 2024. Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, stated, "A refugee program that centers one group and sidelines all others is an abdication of our global humanitarian leadership and an abandonment of thousands of vulnerable families."