U.S. opens refugee doors exclusively to white South Africans as xenophobic violence surges at home

The United States has effectively closed its refugee program to the world—except for one group. Between October 2025 and April 2026, America resettled just over 6,000 refugees. All but three were white South Africans.

Now the Trump administration wants to double down. In a proposal submitted to Congress this week, the White House is seeking to lift the annual refugee cap from a historic low of 7,500 to 17,500—with the additional 10,000 slots reserved exclusively for Afrikaners, the predominantly white descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa.

President Trump has justified the policy by claiming Afrikaners face "racial persecution and genocide" in South Africa, assertions the United Nations Human Rights Office has rejected. Last year, his administration cut aid to South Africa and boycotted the G20 summit in Johannesburg in protest.

A program suspended for all but one nationality

On inauguration day, Trump issued an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Legal challenges followed, including the *Pacito v. Trump* case, which seeks to reopen resettlement for thousands of vetted refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, and elsewhere who have spent years in limbo.

But while that litigation proceeds, one channel has remained open. Sharif Aly, an attorney involved in the lawsuit, told Democracy Now that the selectivity is stark: refugees who have survived persecution and completed multi-year vetting processes are blocked, while a single nationality flows in unimpeded.

"What's happening is not only that they're allowing just this one population," Aly said, "but it's impacting the lives of thousands of other people who have gone through years of vetting, who have gone through years of persecution and violence."

Lebohang Pheko, a professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg, framed the policy in blunt terms: "Whiteness is being recast as endangered."

Xenophobic violence escalates inside South Africa

The American policy shift coincides with a dangerous escalation of anti-migrant violence inside South Africa itself. On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch released a report warning of a new wave of xenophobic attacks as groups like Operation Dudula and March and March intensify protests and vigilante actions targeting foreign nationals, particularly Zimbabweans and other African migrants.

Protests have spread across Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban in recent weeks. Mike Ndlovu, media coordinator for Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX), said his organization is receiving steady reports of intimidation, unlawful evictions, workplace discrimination, police extortion, and denial of healthcare.

"The most common forms of harm include verbal abuse, evictions, discrimination at clinics and workplaces, confiscation of goods and in some cases physical assaults," Ndlovu told Al Jazeera.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights have both called on South African authorities to investigate abuses and protect migrants' access to justice. Human Rights Watch warned that scapegoating migrants for crime, unemployment, and poor public services risks deepening xenophobia and undermining human rights protections across the region.

Afrikaners resettling in small-town America

Meanwhile, new arrivals from South Africa are quietly reshaping American towns. A Washington Post feature published Thursday profiled families like Adri and her two daughters, who relocated to Lewiston, Maine, in March under the program. The city, historically a resettlement hub for Somali refugees, is now receiving predominantly white, Afrikaans-speaking families.

The contrast is unmistakable. For decades, the U.S. refugee program prioritized the world's most vulnerable—Syrians fleeing war, Afghans who worked with U.S. forces, Congolese survivors of mass atrocities. This year, the program has been repurposed to serve a single, predominantly white demographic while the door remains closed to everyone else.

What comes next

Congress must now decide whether to approve the administration's request to expand the refugee cap. Advocacy groups, including those representing African and Middle Eastern diaspora communities, have condemned the policy as overtly discriminatory.

The legal fight over the broader refugee suspension continues, with courts expected to rule in the coming months on whether the administration's January executive order violated U.S. asylum and refugee law. For now, the program remains frozen for all but one nationality—a policy African diaspora leaders say exposes a troubling hierarchy of whose lives are deemed worth protecting.

Reporting drawn from Democracy Now, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera.