Trump Administration Plans to Admit 17,500 Refugees in 2027, Mainly White Afrikaners

The Trump administration notified Congress on September 22, 2026, that it plans to admit 17,500 refugees in fiscal year 2027, with places primarily reserved for White Afrikaners from South Africa. The projected cost is about $500 million.

The proposal sets the ceiling for the coming fiscal year. It begins on October 1, 2026.

The State Department notice describes the group as facing discrimination and violence. It also argues that Afrikaners will assimilate in a way that conserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens.

That policy stands apart from the administration’s sharply reduced admissions for most other nationalities. The notice also says it does not expect other countries to resettle Afrikaners.

The notice links the plan to land seizures and discrimination

The department cited “government-sponsored discrimination,” “hateful rhetoric fueling disproportionate violence” and the seizure of agricultural property without compensation. It tied the land claim to South Africa’s Expropriation Act.

The notice also cited government policies it said were designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education and business. Those claims frame the administration’s case for making Afrikaners the main group in the proposed admissions.

The department said it expects Afrikaners to “fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens.” The notice added that it does not anticipate other countries resettling them.

The $500 million estimate covers the proposed resettlement effort. The administration has presented assimilation and preserving resources for U.S. citizens as part of its rationale.

Lamola says the program draws a racial line

South African officials reject the claim that White South Africans face unique persecution. They say land reform seeks to address apartheid-era inequality, and that crime affects people across racial lines.

Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola called the U.S. program “Apartheid 2.0.” He argued that restricting refugee access to white Afrikaners excludes people of other races.

“Only white Afrikaners from South Africa are allowed to be refugees here. And all of you or any other race is not allowed. It’s a race-based policy.”

The competing accounts put land policy and the treatment of minorities at the center of the dispute. The U.S. notice presents land seizures and discriminatory policies as grounds for its plan; South African officials describe land reform as an effort to confront apartheid’s economic legacy.

The 2027 ceiling follows an earlier increase for South Africans

The latest proposal builds on an increase made earlier in 2026. An emergency determination raised the South African refugee cap from 7,500 to 17,500.

The new notice concerns fiscal year 2027, which begins October 1. It was sent before that fiscal year starts, setting out the number of admissions the administration plans for the period.

State Department figures through August show that nearly 3,000 refugees had been admitted in the current fiscal year. All but three were South Africans.

That figure covers admissions in the current fiscal year, not the entire broader resettlement effort. More than 13,000 South Africans had been resettled in the United States under the broader Afrikaner initiative by August 2026.

More than 13,000 South Africans had arrived by August

The broader program has made South Africans a prominent exception as refugee admissions for most other nationalities have been sharply curtailed. The current-year figures show the same concentration: almost all of the nearly 3,000 refugees admitted through August were South Africans.

The proposed ceiling would keep the South African-focused policy in place for the next fiscal year. Its 17,500 places are not described as exclusively for Afrikaners, but the notice says admissions will be primarily from that group.