President Donald Trump only plans to admit 7,500 refugees into the country in 2026, and that includes mostly white Afrikaners fleeing South Africa.
Refugee groups are shocked and dismayed by the move, which reverses the huge numbers of refugees admitted under former President Joe Biden.
Just over 100,000 refugees were admitted to the U.S. in fiscal 2024, the latest year figures were available.
The number of refugees admitted has varied widely in recent years, but the 7,500 figure is historically low.
"For more than four decades, the U.S. refugee program has been a lifeline for families fleeing war, persecution, and repression," Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said. "At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program’s purpose as well as its credibility."
Vignarajah leads one of several groups paid by the federal government to resettle refugees in American communities, so of course she would be unhappy with the limits.
“Since the U.S. Refugee Program was created in 1980, it has admitted over two million people fleeing ethnic cleansing and other horrors,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an advocate at the American Immigration Council, said. “Now it will be used as a pathway for White immigration. What a downfall for a crown jewel of America’s international humanitarian programs.”
Refugees are typically given transportation into the country, and unlike illegal or other immigrants, they are eligible for all entitlement and aid programs.
"Admission numbers will primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa, pursuant to Executive Order 14204, and other victims of illegal or unjust criminal discrimination in their respective homelands… [The order] mandates that the refugees receive the most stringent identification verification of any class of aliens seeking admission or entry to the United States," the Trump directive expected tomorrow reads.
Vice President JD Vance commented on the damage refugees can do to a community when a large number are settled there.
Because of the amount of government benefits they can get and their willingness to live in crowded conditions, they drive up rent prices so that citizens in the community are priced out, he said.
“That completely destroys the ability of Americans to live the American dream, and that’s what those open border policies did,” Vance added.
The presence of the refugees along with illegal immigrants also drives down wages for jobs in the area and puts citizens out of work, because the refugees are willing to work for less.
Trump is trying to reverse this damage by cutting off most illegal immigration and limiting refugees in a way consistent with his America-first policy focus.
