US President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on October 30, 2025. The United States is cutting back the number of refugees and giving priority to white South Africans. The move, published in the official Federal Register on Thursday, comes after President Donald Trump essentially halted refugee arrivals after taking office in January. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
President Donald Trump's administration is restricting the number of refugees it admits into the country to 7,500 and they will mostly be white South Africans, 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, October 30, in a notice on the Federal Registry. No reason was given for the 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 memo said only that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during the 2026 fiscal year was "justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest."
