U.S. plans 17,500 refugee slots, mainly for Afrikaners

What the administration plans

The Trump administration plans to reserve up to 17,500 U.S. refugee admissions in fiscal year 2027, primarily for White Afrikaners from South Africa. The plan appears in a State Department notice sent to Congress and obtained by CBS News. The fiscal year begins in October, and the admissions would take place over the following 12 months.

The notice projects that the Afrikaner resettlement effort will cost the federal government. It says the administration expects the refugees to assimilate while preserving public resources for U.S. citizens. The administration does not expect other countries to resettle Afrikaners.

The broader U.S. refugee resettlement program has largely been closed to people fleeing persecution and violence elsewhere, but the administration created an exception for Afrikaners. Thousands have been resettled through that exception over the past year and a half.

Why the policy is disputed

President Donald Trump has said Afrikaners face racial oppression and has alleged that they face genocide in South Africa. The State Department told Congress that Afrikaners face uncompensated agricultural land seizures, unequal government policies and rhetoric contributing to violence against racial minorities.

South Africa’s government has consistently denied persecuting Afrikaners, an ethnic minority descended mainly from Dutch and other European settlers. Afrikaners interviewed by “60 Minutes” also rejected the genocide characterization, saying farm killings were part of a wider crime problem affecting South Africans of all races.

The United States has also imposed sanctions on South African officials it says were responsible for discrimination against Afrikaners.