The US president said the country could provide asylum up to 7,500 people per year
US President Donald Trump has slashed the cap on annual refugee admissions from 125,000 to 7,500, the lowest in American history.
In a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Trump argued that the new limit was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.” He added that the admissions would “primarily be allocated” among white South Africans, as well as “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”
Trump has long called for an overhaul of asylum regulations as part of his broader immigration crackdown and his stated goal of combating extremism. He has vowed to carry out “the largest deportation” in US history while also purging federal agencies of “woke” practices.
In February 2025, Trump revoked the protected status of around 500,000 Haitian immigrants living in the US, arguing that migrants from Haiti and from Central and South America included a significant number of violent criminals.
At the same time, the president said he wanted to offer refuge to descendants of white settlers from South Africa, whose black-led government he accused of committing genocide. He also condemned the country’s land reform program, which allows the seizure of property, most of it owned by white farmers.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed the genocide accusation as false and defended the land reform as an effort to reverse the legacy of apartheid.
