Trump Cuts Refugee Inflow to 17,500, Down from Biden’s 125,000
The Trump administration plans to cap next year’s refugee inflow at 17,500 people, down from the 125,000 target set under President Joe Biden.
The State Department laid out the plan in a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday, a week before the 2027 fiscal year opens in October. Admissions will “primarily be Afrikaners from South Africa,” the notice says, naming the Afrikaans-speaking white minority descended from Dutch and French settlers.
Biden’s agencies set the 125,000 target in his last year in office. Resettlement contractors put the long-run average at roughly 92,000 a year since the program started in 1980. Trump’s first term bottomed out at 15,000.
The administration set last year’s ceiling at 7,500, then lifted it to 17,500 after declaring that unforeseen developments in South Africa had created an emergency. Next year’s number holds at that level.
The Trump administration is planning to welcome up to 17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday and obtained by CBS News.
The State Department informed congressional officials that the Trump administration is planning to allocate 17,500 refugee spots for fiscal year 2027, and that they will "primarily" go to Afrikaners, who President Trump has claimed are being oppressed for being White. https://t.co/8zHGl6vD8K
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 22, 2026
The notice argues Afrikaners face land seizures without compensation, policies that push them out of jobs and classrooms, and rhetoric that fuels violence against them. It also tells Congress the arrivals will assimilate in a way that “preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens.” (Read more from “Trump Cuts Refugee Inflow to 17,500, Down from Biden’s 125,000” HERE)
