The US refugee pipeline has been almost entirely narrowed to one country: South Africa. Since the current fiscal year began in October 2025, 4,499 refugees have been admitted, government data shows; all but three Afghans came from South Africa, a dramatic departure from the 125,000 people from 85 countries accepted in the last full year of the Biden administration, the BBC reports.
The sharp shift follows President Trump's move to freeze most refugee admissions while opening a path for Afrikaners, a white minority group in South Africa that he describes as persecuted. South Africa's government has rejected Trump's claims of a "white genocide" as unfounded, pointing to an open letter from prominent Afrikaners who denounced that narrative, with some labeling the US relocation program racist. (The Conversation reports Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson have also pushed the "white genocide" claim.)
Tensions have flared: Pretoria's ambassador to Washington was expelled after accusing Trump of stoking supremacist politics, and Trump later clashed with President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office over the issue. The arrivals, which began with 68 South Africans last May, surged in early 2026, with 2,848 arriving in February and March; Texas now hosts the largest cluster, at 543.
A Washington state refugee resettlement group recently sued the Trump administration over its refugee policies, the Seattle Times reports. The Trump-era refugee program, the lawsuit says, is a "discriminatory entity serving a 95% white population at the expense of refugees who have waited years for the chance to safely resettle in the United States."
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