Trump Seeks 10K More White South African Refugees

President Trump wants to sharply expand a refugee program that's almost entirely focused on one group: white South Africans. In a report sent to Congress on Monday and reviewed by the New York Times, the administration proposes raising this year's refugee cap from 7,500 to 17,500 and reserving the extra 10,000 slots for Afrikaners, mostly descendants of Dutch settlers. The original 7,500 slots were already mostly slated for Afrikaners, the AP reports; refugee admissions remain effectively shut to applicants from all other countries. The administration argues that an "emergency refugee situation" exists in South Africa, citing what it calls government-backed racial discrimination and recent clashes with Pretoria over the program.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected Trump's claims of persecution as "white supremacy and white victimhood," and South African officials dispute US accounts of a December raid on a Johannesburg refugee application processing site. The added Afrikaner slots are projected to cost about $100 million. Formal consultations with Congress are expected in the coming days, but past practice suggests the White House views those largely as a procedural step. Since returning to office, Trump has imposed steep tariffs on South Africa, cut aid to the country, and boycotted last year's Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg. He also confronted Ramaphosa with disputed claims of a "genocide" of Afrikaners during his Oval Office meeting with the South African president last year, CBS News reports.