WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is preparing to welcome up to 10,000 additional white South African refugees to the United States in the coming months. Officials argue that Afrikaners, a group of white South Africans, face discrimination and persecution in their homeland.
The South African government has dismissed these claims from the Trump administration, labeling them as unfounded. However, President Donald Trump has maintained that the Afrikaner minority in South Africa endures systemic discrimination and violence, particularly targeting their farming communities. This belief has led him to halt aid to South Africa, engage in a heated Oval Office exchange with its president, and skip last year’s Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg.
The State Department revealed to Congress on Monday that up to 17,500 Afrikaners, primarily descendants of Dutch settlers, will be admitted as refugees by the end of the fiscal year in September. Initially, the administration planned to allow up to 7,500 Afrikaners, but recent “unforeseen developments in South Africa” have prompted an increase, creating what they describe as an “emergency refugee situation.”
The details of this plan were shared in an emergency notice from the State Department to Congress on Monday evening, a document obtained by The Associated Press. CNN was the first to report on the updated refugee numbers.
Legally, the administration must inform Congress about refugee admissions each fiscal year and engage in consultations with lawmakers. Officials are scheduled to meet with Congress later this week to discuss these plans, as confirmed by a congressional aide who requested anonymity.
The Trump administration has accused the South African government of making statements that undermine the U.S. resettlement program and have been critical of Afrikaners. They point to comments from President Cyril Ramaphosa and other political figures in South Africa. Additionally, a December incident where South African officials raided a U.S. refugee processing center has been highlighted by the administration as “unacceptable” behavior.
“This escalating hostility heightens the risks to Afrikaners in South Africa, who are already subject to far-reaching government-sponsored race-based discrimination,” the State Department said in the notice.
The estimated cost for resettling the additional 10,000 refugees is about $100 million, according to the State Department.
The issue was a subject of a contentious Oval Office encounter between Trump and Ramaphosa last year, during which Trump played a video featuring a far-left politician chanting a song with the lyrics “kill the farmer.” Trump has repeatedly accused South Africa of failing to address a systematic killing of white farmers.
Experts in South Africa have said there is no evidence of whites being targeted for their race, although farmers of all races are victims of violence in South Africa, where there is a high crime rate. During the May 2025 meeting, Ramaphosa said “we are completely opposed to” the behavior that Trump referenced and added “that is not government policy” and “our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying.”
The Trump administration’s overall refugee policy has marked a dramatic departure from that of his predecessors, significantly slashing the number of those who would be admitted. The 7,500 figure that the administration initially disclosed last year was a historic low number of refugees admitted to the U.S. since the program began in 1980.
