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The Trump administration has set the U.S. refugee admissions cap at just 7,500 for the new fiscal year, the lowest in modern history, while prioritizing white Afrikaners from South Africa under a controversial new policy announced Thursday in a memo published in the Federal Register.
The Sept. 30 memo, signed the day before the new fiscal year began, says refugee slots “shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa” and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”
The move marks a sharp departure from past practice and fulfills President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this year to prioritize resettling “Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination,” even as the administration sharply restricted refugee admissions overall.
Record-low ceiling and policy shift
The 7,500-person ceiling represents a steep drop from the Biden administration’s 125,000 target and even undercuts Trump’s previous record low of 15,000 refugees during his first term. Historically, both Democratic and Republican administrations have set the average annual ceiling at roughly 95,000 refugees.
In the memo, the administration justified the new cap as being “in the national interest” and “guided by humanitarian concerns,” but critics in Congress quickly rejected that claim.
Political and diplomatic fallout
The allocation preference for white South Africans expands on Trump’s executive order earlier this year ending U.S. aid to South Africa, which the White House accused of “confiscating land” from minority farmers and “treating certain classes of people very badly.”
That order came amid growing attention to South Africa’s Expropriation Act, signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, which permits the government to seize land in certain cases without compensation. The law has drawn vocal criticism from Elon Musk, a South African–born businessman who has advised Trump on government efficiency and frequently condemned the country’s land reform policies.
The administration in May welcomed dozens of white South Africans as part of its new resettlement effort, while simultaneously barring refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, the Republic of Congo and Myanmar.
Democrats call move “illegal and invalid”
Top Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, including Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), accused the administration of violating federal law by failing to consult Congress before setting the new refugee limit.
“This bizarre presidential determination is not only morally indefensible, it is illegal and invalid,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement. “The Administration has brazenly ignored the statutory requirement to consult with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees before setting the annual refugee admissions ceiling.”
They added that the move “reflects racial preferences and political whims, not our nation’s humanitarian values or rule of law.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment Thursday on Democrats’ claim that the cap was unlawful.
Refugee advocates condemn policy
Refugee and veterans’ advocacy groups also denounced the decision. Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a California-based coalition helping Afghan allies resettle in the United States, called the cap “an unprecedented dismantling of America’s refugee program and a moral collapse.”
“This abandons the very allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with our troops,” VanDiver said.
Broader implications
The administration’s decision to prioritize Afrikaners — a white minority that ruled South Africa during apartheid — is expected to strain U.S. relations with Pretoria and reignite debate over racial and humanitarian priorities in U.S. immigration policy.
Experts say the action signals a dramatic ideological shift in how the U.S. defines refugee protection, placing political and cultural alignment above traditional humanitarian need.
