Newly arrived South Africans wait to hear welcome statements from US government officials in Dulles, Virginia, on 12 May 2025. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Low number represents a dramatic drop after US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution
Guardian staff and agency
Thu 30 Oct 2025 16.59 GMT
The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 – and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans.
The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.
The administration published the news Thursday in a notice on the Federal Registry.
No reason was given for the drop in numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year’s ceiling set under the Biden administration of 125,000.
The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.
The government memo said only that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during 2026 fiscal year was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest”.
The figure had previously been reported after documents about the plans were leaked.