Trump administration to admit primarily Afrikaners under new refugee proposal
US President Donald Trump has claimed Afrikaners face persecution based on their race in the Black-majority country, allegations the South African government has denied.
The Trump administration intends to admit primarily Afrikaners as refugees over the next year, with a ceiling of 17,500 individuals, according to a recent notice sent to Congress. President Trump has asserted that South Africa's white Afrikaner ethnic minority faces persecution based on their race, a claim the South African government has refuted.
Following the administration's halt on all US refugee admissions upon taking office in January 2025, an effort was launched to bring in Afrikaners, drawing criticism from refugee advocates who argued the exclusion of other persecuted and violent groups was unjust. The State Department anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will assimilate into the United States while preserving taxpayer resources.
The resettlement is projected to cost around $500 million and expects about 2,997 people to be admitted under the proposed limit. In the current fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, all but three of the nearly 3,000 refugees were South Africans, as per State Department data through August. In the previous fiscal year, the Biden administration welcomed over 100,000 refugees from various countries.
Critics, such as Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, contend that a refugee program prioritizing one group over others is an abandonment of global humanitarian leadership and thousands of vulnerable families.
Written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
