All but three of the thousands of refugees who have entered the United States since October have come from South Africa. Last October, the White House announced it would prioritize Afrikaners—people descended from Dutch and French settlers—during the admission process for refugees. Since October, it has admitted 4,499 refugees from South Africa. The administration capped the total number of refugees allowed into the country at 7,500 per year, a historic low, down from 125,000 a year under President Joe Biden. In February 2025, Trump issued an executive order alleging that White Afrikaners have been discriminated against in South Africa. “Because they’re being killed. And we don’t want to see people be killed. But it’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about,” the president said during an Oval Office press conference in May 2025, adding that “White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.” South Africa has, on average, 27,000 murders annually, and white farmers make up less than 1 percent of that statistic. “It is of great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa’s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid,” the South African government said in response to Trump’s executive order.
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