Nearly 5,000 white South Africans have been admitted to the United States under a controversial refugee programme launched by President Donald Trump, according to official U.S. resettlement data and reporting on the policy, underscoring how the administration has made a major exception for Afrikaners even as it has sharply restricted refugee admissions from most of the rest of the world. Data published by the U.S. Refugee Processing Center show that 4,499 South Africans were resettled across 48 states between October 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. The same dataset shows that only three Afghans were admitted as refugees during that period, highlighting the programme’s extraordinary weighting toward one national group.
The policy has been one of the most disputed elements of Trump’s immigration agenda. After returning to office in January 2025, Trump effectively froze most refugee admissions, then moved weeks later to create a pathway for white South Africans, especially Afrikaners, on the grounds that they were facing racial discrimination and even possible “genocide.” South Africa’s government has repeatedly rejected those claims as false and unsubstantiated, arguing that the country’s crime crisis affects all communities and that post-apartheid empowerment measures are intended to address historic inequality, not persecute minorities.
The pace of arrivals has accelerated sharply in recent months. Reuters reported in February that about 2,000 white South Africans had entered the U.S. as refugees by January 31, 2026, meaning the total had already more than doubled by the end of March. February and March each saw more than 1,300 South Africans admitted, according to the figures cited in the official arrivals data. Reuters also reported that a January 27 State Department contracting document set a target of processing as many as 4,500 white South African refugee applications per month, far above the administration’s overall refugee ceiling for fiscal year 2026.
That broader ceiling is itself historically low. In October 2025, Trump set the refugee admissions cap for fiscal year 2026 at 7,500, the lowest on record, while signalling that admissions would be focused largely on white South Africans. The policy has drawn criticism from refugee advocates and from Pretoria, particularly because it offers protection to members of a minority that remains among the most economically privileged groups in South Africa. Bilateral tensions worsened in December 2025 after South African authorities raided a U.S. processing site linked to the programme, though Reuters later reported that Pretoria privately told Washington it would not interfere further as long as the process remained lawful.
