Trump sets the annual refugee limit at 7,500 and they
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is restricting the number of refugees admitted annually to the United States to 7,500 and will mostly be white South Africans, a dramatic drop announced Thursday that effectively suspends the United States’ traditional role as a refuge for those fleeing war and persecution.
The move cements a major shift in policy toward refugees that aligns with the Republican administration’s broader goals of keeping out foreigners whom it views as a risk to the nation’s security or a threat to American jobs. That shift has meant increased immigration enforcement — in cities, at borders and at points of entry — in what has become a vastly changed landscape in a country long seen as a beacon for immigrants.
No reason was given for the new numbers, which were published in a notice in the Federal Register and represent a sharp decline from last year’s high limit of 125,000 set during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. The News previously reported that the administration was considering admitting just 7,500 refugees, mostly white South Africans.
The notice said the admission of 7,500 refugees during the 2026 budget year, which began Oct. 1, was “justified by humanitarian concerns or otherwise in the national interest.” He did not mention any specific groups that will be admitted besides white South Africans, also known as Afrikaners.
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“Other victims of illegal or unfair discrimination in their respective countries of origin” will be considered refugees, according to the notice, which does not specify who this might involve.
The lower limit represents another blow to the long-standing refugee program that until recently had bipartisan support.
Groups denounce the historically low limit
Groups working to resettle refugees said the announcement was an abdication of the country’s historic role in hosting refugees from around the world.
“This decision not only lowers the refugee admission ceiling. It lowers our moral standing,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, one of the nation’s resettlement agencies. “Concentrating the vast majority of admissions into a single group undermines the purpose of the program as well as its credibility.”
🚨 BREAKING: The Trump administration is formally announcing a refugee admissions cap of just 7,500 people for FY26, the lowest in U.S. history, while primarily using those limited slots for Afrikaners from South Africa.
📰 Full statement: https://t.co/YXLythoRAw pic.twitter.com/HVsXtqTmQS
– Global Refuge (@GlobalRefuge) October 30, 2025
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🚨 BREAKING: The Trump administration is formally announcing a refugee admissions cap of just 7,500 people for FY26, the lowest in U.S. history, while primarily using those limited slots for Afrikaners from South Africa.
📰 Full statement: https://t.co/YXLythoRAw pic.twitter.com/HVsXtqTmQS
– Global Refuge (@GlobalRefuge) October 30, 2025
Trump suspended the refugee program on his first day in office and since then only a small number have entered the country, mostly white South Africans. Some refugees have also been admitted as part of a court case seeking to allow entry to refugees who were abroad and in the process of arriving in the United States when the program was suspended.
The International Refugee Assistance Project, which sued over the suspension of the program, said in a statement that refugees waiting to be admitted to the United States have already gone through rigorous security checks and are trapped in dangerous conditions.
“By privileging Afrikaners while continuing to bar entry to thousands of refugees who have already been vetted and approved, the administration is once again politicizing a humanitarian program,” said the group’s president, Sharif Aly.
Other nationalities, including Afghans, are left out
The administration announced the program for Afrikaners in February, saying white South African farmers faced discrimination and violence in their countries. The South African government flatly denied this.
Presidents have the authority to set the refugee admission limit as they see fit, often taking input from the State Department or in consultation with refugee resettlement agencies. This limit would set a historic low for refugees admitted to the United States since the program’s inception in 1980.
During his first term, Trump progressively set the limit lower and lower until it reached 15,000 in the last year of his administration.
The determinations usually establish which regions of the world the refugees will come from during the next year.
Left out of Thursday’s advisory were Afghans, many of whom have been trying to flee the Taliban after the US withdrawal there in 2021.
A separate program for Afghans that worked closely with the US government still admits Afghans into the country. But tens of thousands of people who also contributed to the American mission there have been trying to immigrate to the United States through the refugee program and have been largely excluded this year.
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Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, which advocates for the resettlement of at-risk Afghans, described Thursday’s decision as a “horrendous betrayal.”
“I think we need to face the facts. This means that the president and the White House… are not going to allow Afghan refugees to come here,” he said in a video posted on Instagram. “This is a really bad day.”