WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is limiting the number of refugees. 7,500 people enter the country annually And most of them are white South Africans, a number that has declined dramatically since the United States previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people from around the world fleeing war and persecution.
The Republican administration announced the news Thursday in a notice on the Federal Register.
The reason for the number was not disclosed, but it is a significant decrease from last year’s cap of 125,000 set under Democratic President Joe Biden. The Associated Press previously reported that the government was considering taking in just 7,500 refugees and asylum seekers. mostly white South Africans.
The memo simply said that admitting 7,500 refugees in fiscal year 2026 is “justified by humanitarian concerns or otherwise in the national interest.”
Cutting the cap is the latest blow to a long-standing program that until recently enjoyed bipartisan support.
President Trump suspended the program on his first day in office, and since then only a small number of refugees have entered the country, most of them white South Africans. Some refugees were also admitted as part of a lawsuit seeking admission for refugees who were abroad and scheduled to enter the United States when the program was suspended.
The administration announced a program for Afrikaners in February. A white South African farmer said Facing discrimination and violence within the family. The country’s government strongly denies this feature.
National organizations working to help resettle newly arrived refugees are being forced to lay off staff as the number of refugees arriving under the long-standing program plummets.
