Trump limits refugees mostly to white South Africans

What happened

The Trump administration said Thursday it would cap the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. at 7,500 in the newly begun fiscal year, the lowest number in at least 45 years and a drop from 125,000 last year. The limited slots, the administration said in a notice published in the Federal Register, will “primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa.”

Who said what

President Donald Trump’s “dramatic drop” in refugee admissions and focus on white South Africans “effectively suspends America’s traditional role as a haven for those fleeing war and persecution,” The Associated Press said, a policy goal that “until recently enjoyed bipartisan support.” The administration said the new ceiling was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”

Yesterday’s notice “made plans official that had been in the works for months,” The New York Times said. Trump “took steps to gut the refugee program on the first day of his second term,” suspending all refugee admissions while creating a “carve-out” for white South Africans. He said Afrikaners, a “group not traditionally eligible for the program,” faced racial discrimination, a “characterization rejected as unmoored from reality by South African officials and some Afrikaners themselves,” The Washington Post said.

Despite Trump’s monthslong “effort to bring in Afrikaners,” Reuters said, “only 138 South Africans had entered the U.S. by early September.” The “resettlement efforts have been slowed at least in part by the Afrikaners themselves,” the Post said, “with some changing their minds about relocating to the U.S.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What next?

The White House is legally required to “consult with members of Congress before setting refugee levels,” Reuters said, but did not do so before making its numbers official. “This bizarre presidential determination is not only morally indefensible, it is illegal and invalid,” congressional Democrats said in a joint statement yesterday. A senior Trump administration official blamed the government shutdown and said no refugees would be admitted until Congress is consulted.