US Sets 17,500 Refugee Slots for Afrikaners in FY2027

The Trump administration told Congress most of 17,500 fiscal year 2027 refugee admissions will go primarily to White South Africans, at an estimated $500 million cost.

The State Department informed Congress on Tuesday that it plans 17,500 refugee admissions for fiscal year 2027, which begins in October, and that those spots will "primarily" go to Afrikaners from South Africa. The notice argues the group faces discrimination at home, citing what it calls seizure of agricultural property without compensation and government policies it says dismantle equal opportunity. It also states the United States anticipates Afrikaners will "fully assimilate" in a way that preserves taxpayer resources and that it does not expect other countries to resettle them.

The plan continues a dramatic transformation of a decades-long program that historically served people fleeing war, persecution, and other dangers worldwide. Refugee advocates say the administration's focus on a single group has excluded vulnerable populations elsewhere. The administration raised the cap for South Africans earlier this year to 17,500 — up from a previous limit of just 7,500 for all refugees worldwide — through an emergency determination, effectively shutting the program's door for the rest of the world while keeping an exemption open for Afrikaners.

President Trump has alleged Afrikaners face a "genocide" in South Africa, claims the South African government has strongly and consistently denied. In a tense Oval Office meeting last year, he confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a video highlighting murders of farmers. According to CBS News, a "60 Minutes" report earlier this year featured Afrikaners who rejected the genocide framing, saying farm murders were tied to a broader crime problem affecting all races. Last week, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on South African officials it accused of discriminating against Afrikaners.

Resettlement under the proposed ceiling is projected to cost roughly $500 million, according to the notice to Congress. Reporting by CNN, based on more than a dozen people familiar with the program, describes a rocky rollout: diplomatic spats, a scramble to open a processing site in South Africa, unusual requests from applicants, and high denial rates driven partly by criminal records among some applicants.