WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump increased the refugee admissions ceiling by 10,000 for this year to allow more white South Africans to come into the country, a signed presidential determination?showed.
The document, dated May 21, said white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity face an emergency situation ?due to the “incitement ?of racially motivated violence” by the government and political parties in the majority-Black country. Trump, ?a Republican, froze refugee admissions from around the world when he took office in January 2025, but weeks later launched a program exclusively aimed at bringing in white South Africans. The effort — which prioritized white refugees ?while shunning thousands of others from Africa, Asia and elsewhere — was part of a broader challenging of humanitarian norms around refugee protection.
The ?Trump administration has admitted only three non-South African refugees this fiscal year, government figures show.
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