Show Caption
President Donald Trump raised the cap for how many refugees may be admitted to the United States by 10,000, but the only group that will benefit is White South Africans.Trump raised the refugee cap from 7,500 to 17,500 for the fiscal year, according to an emergency order dated May 21. Those slots are only open to Afrikaners, members of South Africa's White minority.The opening of 10,000 more slots for Afrikaners only is "justified by the grave humanitarian concerns and is otherwise in the national interest" of the United States, according to the order."An unforeseen emergency refugee situation now exists due to recent increases in the incitement of racially motivated violence on the part of the Government of South Africa and leaders of prominent political parties in South Africa."Trump has said Afrikaners are victims of "genocide," a claim that circulated in right-wing social media circles, bolstered by Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa. South Africa's government disputes that characterization and says crime statistics do not support the allegation that the country's White farmers have been targeted with race-based violence.Afrikaners were the ruling group under South Africa's apartheid system of legalized segregation, which ended in 1994. Some Afrikaners say a 2024 law that allows the government to seize land "in the public interest" discriminates against them.Trump suspended the refugee program soon after he took office in January of 2025 and later that year lowered the cap on refugee admissions from 125,000 to 7,500 – the lowest level in history. He also ordered a re-review of the nearly 197,000 refugees who were cleared to enter the United States when President Joe Biden was in office.He carved out an exception for Afrikaners. The first group of Afrikaners claiming asylum arrived last May. As of this April, just over 6,000 refugees have been admitted to the United States this fiscal year – all but three of them from South Africa, according to State Department data.Refugee advocacy organizations berated the new emergency order."That is not refugee protection. It is the politicization of a humanitarian program in service of an ideological agenda," Beth Oppenheim, president of the refugee organization HIAS, said in a statement.The International Rescue Committee said it was "deeply troubled" by the order, noting that more than 128,000 "fully vetted" refugees were stranded after Trump shut down refugee admissions."At a time of record global displacement, allocating limited refugee admissions overwhelmingly to one nationality excludes many of the world’s most vulnerable from access to protection."
