U.S. to welcome up to 17,500 more White South Africans as refugees

The Trump administration intends to admit up to 17,500 White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees within the next year, as disclosed to Congress on Tuesday via a document obtained by CBS News. The State Department has announced that the administration will allocate 17,500 refugee spots for fiscal year 2027, with these primarily intended for Afrikaners, a group President Trump has described as victims of racial oppression in post-apartheid South Africa.

The fiscal year 2027 commences in October. While the current administration has largely suspended the U.S. refugee resettlement program for individuals fleeing persecution and violence worldwide, it has made an exception for Afrikaners, resettling thousands over the past 18 months. Administration officials have cast Afrikaners as victims of racial discrimination in South Africa, citing factors such as the expropriation of agricultural land without compensation, policies aimed at eliminating equal opportunities in employment, education, and business, and violent rhetoric targeting this minority group.

The South African government has consistently refuted allegations of persecuting Afrikaners, stating that the group comprises descendants of European settlers, primarily from the Netherlands. According to the State Department, Afrikaners confront issues such as the seizure of their farms without adequate compensation and policies that undermine equal opportunity in various spheres of life.

Additionally, they face hate speech that fuels disproportionate violence against them. Last week, the U.S. imposed sanctions on South African officials accused of discriminating against Afrikaners.

The resettlement initiative is expected to incur a cost of $500 million for the U.S. government. The administration anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will successfully integrate into the United States while preserving taxpayer resources for citizens and does not foresee other nations resettling Afrikaners. President Trump has consistently claimed that Afrikaners in South Africa face a genocide, a statement he made during a heated Oval Office meeting last year with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

During this meeting, Trump showed Ramaphosa a video depicting the murders of farmers in South Africa. These claims have faced significant skepticism. A recent "60 Minutes" report featured Afrikaners who disputed the notion of a White genocide, asserting that the farm murders are part of a broader crime problem in South Africa that affects individuals of all races.