Nearly All 16,292 Refugees Admitted in Fiscal 2026 Were From South Africa
Federal data show 16,287 South African admissions and five Afghans. The administration says it is helping Afrikaners; refugee groups say the most vulnerable are being left out.
By Watchman Report staff ·
The Trump administration admitted 16,292 refugees in fiscal year 2026, which ran from Oct. 1, 2025, to Sept. 30, 2026, and 16,287 of them came from South Africa, Axios reported, citing federal admissions data. The other five were from Afghanistan. Texas, Florida and California received the most new arrivals, followed by Michigan and New York.
The administration started the year with a cap of 7,500 and raised it to 17,500 in May through an emergency determination, citing what the president's order called "racially motivated violence" against Afrikaners. The fiscal 2027 cap is also 17,500, with admissions "primarily" allocated to Afrikaners. Axios noted that claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa are disputed: a South African court and independent researchers have said no genocide is occurring.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Axios the administration "continues to process applications for refugee status because the President has a humanitarian heart." The International Rescue Committee has urged that resettlement go to "the world's most vulnerable," including "Afghans who risked their lives to support the American mission in Afghanistan" and "persecuted religious and ethnic minorities." By comparison, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024 under the Biden administration.
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