Trump administration to allow just 7,500 refugees in drastic cut
The Trump administration announced plans on Thursday to drastically cut back the number of refugees to be accepted annually by the US to a record low and give priority to white South Africans.
Under the new policy, the US would welcome only 7,500 refugees in fiscal year 2026, down from more than 100,000 a year under Democratic President Joe Biden.
During President Donald Trump's first administration, the average number of refugees allowed into the US each year was 29,000, though it substantially decreased in his final year.
The Biden administration significantly increased the number of refugee slots, but in practice, it did not admit that many. Over the fiscal years of his administration, the number of refugees admitted was 25,465 in 2022; 60,014 in 2023; 100,034 in 2024; and 27,308 in 2025 - according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.
International Refugee Assistance Project president, Sharif Aly, slammed the Trump administration's decision in a statement shared with Middle East Eye.
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"Today’s announcement highlights just how far this administration has gone when it comes to abandoning its responsibilities to displaced people around the world."
The vast majority of those being accepted during the fiscal year, which began on 1 October, would be white South Africans and "other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands", according to a White House memo.
"The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa," it said.
IRAP president Aly said the administration is politicising a humanitarian program.
"This determination makes it painfully clear that the Trump administration values politics over protection. By privileging Afrikaners while continuing to ban thousands of refugees who have already been vetted and approved, the administration is once again politicizing a humanitarian program."
Trump essentially halted refugee arrivals after taking office in January, but has been making an exception for white South Africans, whom the administration says are being persecuted.
Sharif from IRAP said that the number of approved and vetted refugees who had "confirmed travel plans" to resettle in the US before the Trump administration's suspension is larger than the "entire refugee program this year".
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and a delegation of white South Africans who visited Trump in the Oval Office earlier this year denied the allegation of a "white genocide" as baseless.
Trump's decision to suspend the country's refugee resettlement programme after returning to office left 12,000 vulnerable people in limbo who had been conditionally approved for resettlement and had flights booked before 20 January, as well as almost 90,000 others who had been approved for resettlement.
While US vetting processes for refugees normally take 18 to 24 months, according to the State Department's website, the Afrikaners' cases were expedited.
Currently, multiple legal cases have been filed against the Trump administration to enable those who were approved for resettlement to be allowed into the US, including a class-action lawsuit filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project.
"It is egregious to exclude refugees who completed years of rigorous security checks and are currently stuck in dangerous and precarious situations," Sharif said..
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