By Staff, Agencies

The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 – and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans.

The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.

The administration published the news on Thursday in a notice on the Federal Registry.

No reason was given for the drop in numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year’s ceiling set under the Biden administration of 125,000.

The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.

The government memo said only that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during 2026 fiscal year was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest”.

The figure had previously been reported after documents about the plans were leaked.

The announcement swiftly drew criticism from refugee organizations, with the International Refugee Assistance Project saying: “This determination makes it painfully clear that the Trump administration values politics over protection.”

The administration is “once again politicizing a humanitarian program” by privileging Afrikaners while excluding vetted refugees who are stuck in dangerous situations, the statement said.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, CEO of US-based Global Refuge, criticized the decision, saying it “lowers our moral standing” and undermines the refugee program’s purpose and credibility by concentrating admissions on a single group.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said the US Refugee Program, which helped “over two million people fleeing ethnic cleansing,” is now a “pathway for white immigration,” calling it a “downfall” for a crown jewel of US humanitarian efforts.

In February, Trump signed an executive order cutting aid to South Africa, accusing its Black-led government of “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners, citing a land expropriation law allegedly targeting their property.

The South African government denied US claims that Afrikaners face racially motivated violence, noting that white South Africans—who make up 7.3% of the population—own 72% of farms, while Black Africans, 81.4% of the population, hold only about 4% of the land.

Thursday’s announcement continues Trump’s pattern of cutting refugee numbers; in 2019 he set the 2020 cap at 18,000, and in 2020 he lowered the 2021 limit to 15,000.