United States (US) President Donald Trump\u2019s administration is considering more than doubling an annual refugee limit to bring more white South Africans (SA) into the \u200bUS, according to three people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, paused refugee admissions from around the world when he took office in January 2025. Weeks later, \u200che issued an executive order prioritising the resettlement of European-descended Afrikaners, saying they faced race-based persecution in majority-Black SA. SA\u2019s government vehemently denies the claims.<\/p>\n
The US Refugee Admissions Program was formally established in 1980 after hundreds of thousands of people fled wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. The program expanded to provide safe haven to persecuted people around the globe. Trump has used it almost exclusively to bring white South Africans into the US, \u200bpart of a broader upending of norms around humanitarian protection, opens new tab.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, US officials have discussed expanding the 7 500-person refugee cap by 10 000 to allow more South Africans of \u200bAfrikaner ethnicity to obtain refugee status, said people familiar with internal planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share non-public government discussions.<\/p>\n
The \u2060White House referred questions to the US State Department.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Veprek said an increase in the refugee limit was being considered but did not provide details. \u201cWe\u2019re looking \u200bat the pace of resettlement right now and thinking about how quickly it\u2019s going, and do we need to increase the ceiling for the current fiscal year as well,\u201d he said at \u200ban event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration.<\/p>\n
During the apartheid era, which ended with the first democratic elections in 1994, SA maintained a racially segregated society with separate schools, neighbourhoods and public facilities for people classified as Black, coloured, white or Asian.<\/p>\n
Blacks make up 81% of SA\u2019s population, according to 2022 census data. Afrikaners and other white South Africans constitute 7% of the population.<\/p>\n
The US \u200badmitted about 4 500 South Africans as refugees through the first six months of the fiscal year, State Department figures show, on pace to exceed Trump\u2019s existing limits for the program. The only \u200brefugees other than white South Africans to enter this fiscal year were three Afghans, according to State Department statistics.<\/p>\n
Trump set the record-low refugee ceiling of 7 500 for fiscal year 2026, which began on 01 October 2025, \u200cdown from \u2060a ceiling of 125 000 a year under former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is also discussing bringing in refugees of other nationalities, one of the people familiar with planning said.<\/p>\n
US officials are weighing whether religious minorities from Iran and countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union could be included under what\u2019s known as the \u201cLautenberg\u201d program, the person said. The program stems from a 1989 budget amendment introduced by then-US Senator\u202fFrank Lautenberg that aimed to make it easier for Jewish refugees to resettle in the US.<\/p>\n
Some South Africans in the us decide to go back home<\/p>\n
Even as \u200bTrump looks to further ramp up the entry \u200bof South Africans, an internal US government \u2060email reviewed by Reuters\u00a0showed that at least four refugees already in the US have returned to SA.<\/p>\n
One South African who arrived in Minneapolis in late January departed the US less than a month later, the email showed. Case notes said that plans for his daughter and \u200bgrandchildren to join him \u201cfell through\u201d so he returned to his home country.<\/p>\n
A pair of South Africans who arrived in Twin Falls, Idaho, in \u200blate January via the \u2060refugee program turned around a week later, saying a parent was ill in SA, the email showed.<\/p>\n
Another South African resettled in Moline, Illinois, in mid-March returned home weeks later, the email said.<\/p>\n
\u201cResettlement occurred quickly, she had not thoroughly thought through the process, and her family in SA has decided not to continue their own resettlement process,\u201d case notes said. \u201cAdditionally, the client\u2019s age (66) and ability to provide \u2060for herself is \u200ba concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has portrayed SA as dangerous and oppressive for whites, yet thousands of white South Africans abroad have \u200breturned to the country in recent years, Reuters reported in March.<\/p>\n
US government contracting documents reported by\u00a0Reuters\u00a0in February said the US aimed to process 4 500 white South Africans per month through the refugee program. The documents also said the \u200bState Department paid to install more than a dozen trailers on embassy property in Pretoria to conduct interviews.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15849,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-32964","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The \u2060White House referred questions to the US State Department.","published_date":"","news_description":"The \u2060White House referred questions to the US State Department.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32965,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32964\/revisions\/32965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}