The Trump administration has informed Congress that most of the 17,500 refugees it plans to admit in fiscal year 2027 will be white South Africans from the country’s Afrikaner minority. The announcement has intensified concern among Christian and other faith-based refugee agencies, which say persecuted believers and other vulnerable minorities are being left with no path to resettlement.
According to the State Department’s report to lawmakers, the administration intends to cap admissions at 17,500 for the 12-month period beginning in October, with places “primarily” allocated to Afrikaners. Officials justify the focus on white South Africans by pointing to reports of land seizures and other alleged discrimination, arguing that they are both under threat and likelier to assimilate in the United States. News agencies that obtained the congressional notice say it continues an emergency determination earlier this year that raised the overall refugee ceiling from 7,500 and reserved all 10,000 newly added slots for Afrikaners.
Pew Research Center analysis of federal data shows that refugee admissions have fallen sharply during Trump’s second term, even as the administration maintains that security screening limits how many people can be processed. Refugees from South Africa now make up nearly all arrivals so far in fiscal 2026, a marked departure from decades when the program regularly welcomed people fleeing war and religious persecution from dozens of countries. Advocates note that the current cap is historically low compared with most years since the program began in 1980.
World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization that helps resettle refugees through church partnerships, has led a public campaign urging Trump to reopen the program to persecuted religious minorities, including Christians from countries where they face severe restrictions or violence. In a recent joint report with Open Doors US, World Relief highlighted that fiscal year 2026 was the first year in which no persecuted Christian refugees were resettled in the United States, warning that the policy undercuts the country’s long-standing commitment to religious freedom. The organization has also coordinated a petition and open letter to the president, signed by nearly 3,500 evangelical Christians, calling on the administration to restore broader refugee resettlement and halt the exclusion of those fleeing religious persecution.
A separate letter referenced by World Relief was endorsed by leaders from the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Open Doors US and Global Christian Relief, who collectively argue that refugee resettlement is one of the United States’ most effective tools for supporting religious liberty abroad. These leaders point out that in earlier years, about 30 percent of refugees resettled in the United States were Christians coming from the 50 countries where believers face the most intense persecution, alongside many refugees of other faiths targeted because of their religion, ethnicity or political dissent.
Critics inside and outside South Africa question the decision to prioritize Afrikaners, noting that they are a white ethnic minority historically associated with the apartheid system that enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised Black South Africans until 1994. South African officials and commentators quoted in local media have rejected claims that Afrikaners face systematic persecution, arguing instead that post-apartheid land and economic reforms aim to redress past injustices rather than target any single racial group.
Under the Refugee Act, the administration must formally consult with congressional leaders before finalizing the annual admissions ceiling, and lawmakers could press for changes even though they lack a direct veto over the president’s determination. Faith-based resettlement agencies say they will continue to lobby the White House and Congress in the coming weeks, warning that another year without pathways for refugees fleeing religious persecution would leave thousands stranded in danger and diminish the moral credibility of U.S. leadership.