Trump weighs record-low refugee cap, prioritizing white South Africans

President Donald Trump is considering admitting far fewer refugees into the U.S. this year, as few as 7,500, and mostly white South Africans, officials say, a dramatic new low as the administration is conducting sweeping immigration raids as part of its mass deportation agenda.

The new figures have not been finalised by the Trump administration or officially transmitted in a notification to Congress as required by last week's deadline, according to two people familiar with the situation who were granted anonymity because they were unauthorised to discuss it with the media.

The decreased numbers of refugees would be a stark departure from the higher figures traditionally allowed into the U.S. , The Biden administration last year set a target of 125,000 refugee admissions. And advocates warn it would essentially bump from the line those who have already been vetted and are awaiting approvals. It all comes as the Department of Homeland Security is engaged in a crackdown on immigrants in American cities, including this past weekend in Chicago, and recruiting officers with a social media campaign to “recapture our national identity.”

“This would be a monumental shift in U.S. refugee policy, not just in terms of reducing admissions, but also in terms of disproportionately privileging one group over every other,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the resettlement organisation, Global Refuge.

“Our concern is that this could turn what has long been a globally responsive humanitarian system into one that overwhelmingly favours a single group," Vignarajah said.

Trump suspended the refugee program in January

The refugee program -- which once had widespread bipartisan support -- was suspended on Trump’s first day in office.

Since then, only a trickle of refugees have been admitted to the country, either as part of an ongoing court case seeking to resume the program or as part of a new refugee program for Afrikaners that Trump announced in February. The administration says the white South African farmers face discrimination and violence at home, which the country’s government strongly denies.

The White House said the refugee cap is not final until the administration consults with Congress, according to an official granted anonymity because they were unauthorised to discuss the situation.

The official and one of the other people said due to the federal government shutdown, no refugees will be admitted during the new fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, until the government is reopened, although with the program suspended, few are being let in as is.

Some 128,000 refugees have currently been approved for resettlement in the United States and are now stuck in limbo, said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency. In addition, 14,000 Jews, Christians and other religious minorities in Iran have long been registered with the refugee program.

“How can a president who claims to stand for religious and American values and who claims to support legal and orderly migration turn his back on so many refugees who followed the rules, while moving white South Africans to the front of the line?” he said.

The expected admissions are lower than advocates hoped

The 7,500 number is a dramatic reduction in the already historically low refugee admission caps that Trump put forward during his first term and also well below what refugee advocates had feared would be the target for the coming fiscal year.

In early to mid-September, organisations that assist refugees began sounding the alarm that the administration was considering a cap of roughly 30,000, with most of those spots reserved for white South Africans.

Administration officials said at the time that the numbers were in flux and would require White House sign-off, but did not indicate that the total number could be slashed by more than 20,000 from what the advocates had feared.

As the government shutdown loomed last week, these officials began to say that no final determination would be made until Congress had been consulted and that that was unlikely until after the shutdown ended.

One senior U.S. official said Saturday such consultation is still required and would not likely occur until the government goes back to work.

But the official also noted that 7,500 admissions in the current fiscal year would be “significantly more” than had been allowed in since Trump took office for the second time in January.

Other refugees may be left in limbo

Certain lawmakers in Congress have been pressing the White House for the official notification, which was required by law by the Sept. 30 deadline.

The ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees that handle immigration matters said the Trump administration is “in open defiance of the law."

Refugees are being left in “limbo,” wrote Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and other top Democrats on the Judiciary panels in a letter last week. “The consequences are dire."

They said thousands of people are facing persecution abroad, “who have already passed the rigorous vetting requirements", are being left to languish in refugee camps while Trump is “carving out exceptions for white South African farmers, allowing Afrikaners to skip the line.”