Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has introduced the bottom refugee admission cap within the nation’s historical past, limiting entry to only 7,500 individuals for the fiscal yr 2026.
In a presidential doc printed on Thursday however dated September 30, the Trump administration indicated that the US refugee system would stay largely closed to the thousands and thousands of individuals around the globe fleeing unsafe situations.
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As a substitute, precedence for the 7,500 accessible slots could be given to white Afrikaners from South Africa.
“The admissions numbers shall primarily be allotted amongst Afrikaners from South Africa pursuant to Govt Order 14204 and different victims of unlawful or unjust discrimination of their respective homelands,” the doc mentioned.
Trump has repeatedly said white South Africans are being persecuted within the Black-majority nation, a declare rejected by South Africa’s authorities and prime Afrikaner officers.
Thursday’s filings additionally indicated that the Trump administration would chop the teams that deal with refugee providers shifting ahead.
Refugee resettlement grants and contracts that at the moment go to an array of private and non-private organisations will as an alternative be rerouted to the Workplace of Refugee Resettlement within the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
“The switch ensures higher alignment of assets, oversight, and accountability [of] resettlement actions that happen solely inside the USA,” a separate declaration mentioned.
Trump’s refugee cap is the bottom since Congress handed the Refugee Act of 1980, which codified a proper course of for admitting and relocating refugees to the US.
Since then, no less than two million refugees have arrived by the US Refugee Admissions Program or USRAP. Trump sought to droop the programme upon taking workplace, prompting a profitable authorized problem from immigrant rights teams.
Thursday’s cap of seven,500 is simply a fraction of the 125,000 refugees allowed to enter underneath former President Joe Biden throughout his last yr in workplace. The brand new, decrease cap is about to final from October 2025 by September 2026.
In keeping with the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are at the moment 42.7 million refugees globally.
The US Refugee Act permits presidents to set a cap on the variety of annual refugee admissions, however there isn’t a backside restrict. That has lengthy sparked issues that Trump, who slashed admissions throughout his first time period, may successfully grind USRAP to a halt.
‘Downfall for a crown jewel’
In a put up on the social media platform X, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow on the American Immigration Council, famous that Trump’s declaration appeared to shift the definition of whom Washington considers to be a refugee.
“Trump’s new refugee dedication seems to name for admitting refugees who wouldn’t meet the definition of refugee — somebody who faces persecution (not ‘discrimination’) on the idea of race, faith, nationality, membership in a specific social group, or political opinion,” he wrote.
He added that, for many years, the US refugee programme has admitted “individuals fleeing ethnic cleaning and different horrors”.
“Now it will likely be used as a pathway for White immigration,” he mentioned. “What a downfall for a crown jewel of America’s worldwide humanitarian packages.”
The Worldwide Refugee Help Venture, in the meantime, mentioned that Trump didn’t seem to comply with the required congressional session course of earlier than saying the cap. The group dismissed the transfer as baldly political.
“As we speak’s announcement highlights simply how far this administration has gone with regards to abandoning its obligations to displaced individuals around the globe,” the organisation’s president, Sharif Aly, mentioned in an announcement.
“America’s refugee program was constructed to mirror our values, and the 1000’s of people we’ve closed our doorways to characterize 1000’s of missed alternatives of people that may have strengthened a local people or financial system,” the assertion mentioned.
Trump’s declaration didn’t give a purpose for the huge reduce in refugee admissions, saying solely that the quantity was “justified by humanitarian issues or is in any other case within the nationwide curiosity”.
The US president has led an enormous crackdown on all types of immigration since taking workplace, however some advocates had hoped that the refugee programme — which traditionally had broad bipartisan help — could be spared.
The cross-aisle support has been buoyed lately by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, with many politicians supporting pathways to immigration for Afghans who labored alongside the US navy or allied forces and corporations.
Many Afghans have relied on the refugee programme whereas different specialised immigration programmes stay constricted or backlogged.
Since taking workplace for a second time period, Trump, nevertheless, has centered closely on white Afrikaners. In February, for example, Trump issued Govt Order 14204 to chop help to South Africa, on the idea that it demonstrated “surprising disregard” for Afrikaners.
That order additionally prioritised humanitarian reduction, together with refugee admissions, to white South Africans, on the idea that they have been “victims of unjust racial discrimination”.
The primary airplane carrying white South Africans admitted underneath the brand new programme landed within the US in Might.
