Donald Trump’s administration is reviewing plans that could drastically overhaul the nation’s refugee system to one that overwhelmingly favors white people.
The administration is considering slashing the number of refugees allowed into the country to 7,500 people, plummeting from 125,000 annual admissions under Joe Biden’s administration, The Independent previously reported.
But the vast majority of those limited admissions — as many as 93 percent — would be reserved for white South Africans, according to The Washington Post.
The State Department is reportedly planning to resettle 2,000 Afrikaners by the end of October and then another 4,000 by the end of November.
At least 700 Afrikaners are being processed for imminent resettlement in the United States at the end of the government shutdown, following dozens of Afrikaners who were already admitted to the country as refugees earlier this year.
A senior State Department official told The Independent that these “consultations haven't taken place” during the government shutdown as lawmakers remain at an impasse over a 2026 budget.
“We are unable to comment on the internal operations of refugee processing and admissions,” the person said. “The president will make the decision about the [2026] refugee admissions cap at the appropriate time, and any numbers discussed at this point are only speculation.”
After returning to the White House in January, Trump virtually shut down all refugee admissions — stranding thousands of people who were offered entry to the United States for humanitarian protections, only to have those offers rescinded moments after Trump entered office.
But the president made an exception for Afrikaners his administration says have faced discrimination, a characterization rejected by South African officials.
In May, the administration welcomed a first group of 59 white South Africans into the country, where officials have “essentially extended citizenship” to them, Trump said at the time. The president has amplified a disputed claim that white farmers in the country are victims of “genocide.”
Roughly 400 Afrikaners have since arrived in the country as refugees, and the administration has set a goal of processing another 1,000 for admission, according to The Washington Post.
Plans presented by the State Department and Homeland Security would also give preference to English speakers and Europeans, proposals that refugee groups and advocates say undermine the nation’s moral and legal fabric.
Officials have suggested that the United States should prioritize entry for Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties,” according to The New York Times.
Those views appear to align with far-right platforms across Europe, including Alternative for Germany, an anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant party whose leaders have trafficked in antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
Potential changes to the refugee application process largely focus on assimilation, and could direct refugee applicants to take classes on “American history and values” and “respect for cultural norms,” according to The New York Times.
The administration should only allow entry to refugees who “fully and appropriately assimilate, and are aligned with the president’s objectives,” according to documents reviewed by the newspaper.
That sharp drop in admissions would mean that applications for thousands of people who are already in the refugee admission pipeline — including people who have undergone extensive background checks — would be canceled.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has overseen a radical reshaping of the agency, which funneled more than $250 million from refugee services to pay immigrants to leave the country.
That money was moved from the State Department’s Migration and Refugee Assistance, which is overseen by the Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration. The bureau’s former mission was to aid refugees “fleeing persecution, crisis or violence and seek durable solutions for forcibly displaced people,” according to its website.
But under Rubio’s restructuring, the refugee bureau’s mission is now explicitly focused on efforts to “return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status.”
The administration has also moved to choke off funding for faith-based groups that help resettle refugees, removing a critical lifeline for refugees who are already in the country.
At the same time, the administration is stripping legal status for more than 1 million people living in the country with legal permission — radically expanding a pool of immigrants who can be swiftly deported — and banning citizens of more than a dozen 12 countries from traveling to the United States altogether.
A dramatic overhaul of the nation’s refugee system “would deliberately leave vulnerable people in danger all around the world, rendering it unrecognizable,” according to Naomi Steinberg, vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy for HIAS.
“We’re hearing from Afghan women’s rights activists, Venezuelan political dissidents, Congolese families, persecuted Christians, and other religious minorities, all of whom now fear there is no room left for them in a system they trusted,” Global Refuge president Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said in a recent statement. “What refugee families need most is a pathway to protection that is consistent, principled, and grounded in the promise that every life matters equally, not just the few who fit a favored profile.”
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