President Donald Trump is easing his administration’s cap on the number of refugees who can enter the United States, according to a forthcoming White House memo. Set to be published officially on Wednesday, the directive says the additional 10,000 slots — raising the annual limit from 7,500 to 17,500 — are reserved for white South Africans.
“An unforeseen emergency refugee situation now exists due to recent increases in the incitement of racially motivated violence on the part of the Government of South Africa and leaders of prominent political parties in South Africa,” reads the memo, which is addressed to the secretaries of state, homeland security and health and human services.
The White House document did not provide further information. Experts who spoke with PBS News said there is no refugee or humanitarian crisis affecting this group.
Across the first fiscal year of his second term, the Trump administration resettled 506 refugees, nearly 70% of whom were white South Africans, the Migration Policy Institute reported.
Trump’s advocacy for white Afrikaners stands in contrast to his other moves dismantling the country’s refugee program.
On his first day back in office, the president ordered an indefinite pause on the program and subsequently canceled travel plans for approved refugees who had been granted the legal status already.
WATCH: Refugees already cleared to settle in U.S. have flights canceled after Trump order
In October, Trump announced a refugee cap of 7,500 for fiscal year 2026. Former President Joe Biden set the 2025 limit at 125,000.
The shift in the refugee cap is different from changes made by past administrations, said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge.
“This administration has overwhelmingly reserved the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for one minority group from a single country, while simultaneously shutting the door on the vast majority of the world’s most vulnerable refugees,” she said.
How are refugee caps set?
Refugee caps are set by the president in consultation with Congress. Generally, presidents submit a report to Congress proposing a refugee cap for the upcoming fiscal year. Then the president issues a determination, officially setting the cap.
However, in the event of an “unforeseen emergency refugee situation,” according to the Immigration and Nationality Act, the president can, after consulting with Congress, issue an emergency determination updating the cap. This is the process Trump is undertaking.
“It is not common for the refugee cap to change part way through the fiscal year, but it has happened,” said Jaya Ramji-Nogales, an immigration law professor at Temple University.
In 2021, Biden issued an emergency determination increasing the refugee cap that Trump had set during his first term for fiscal year 2021. Trump had set a cap of 15,000, and Biden increased it to 62,000.
The State Department published a 15-page report justifying the changes.
In contrast, Ramji-Nogales said, “the Trump administration’s ‘justification’ for their increase is inadequate due to the absence of detailed factual support.”.
It’s unclear whether the Trump administration will publish an additional report once the presidential determination is issued.
“In this case, the administration is invoking an emergency provision intended for crises like genocide or mass displacement and applying it to a situation that many experts say doesn’t meet that bar,” Vignarajah said.
Is it common for refugee caps to be set for particular groups or countries?
As part of the cap-setting process, presidents usually allocate refugee slots regionally, according to Michelle Mittelstadt, the Migration Policy Institute’s communications director. If there are unused slots for one region, the secretary of state can transfer those allocations to another area.
According to the Congressional Research Service, from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2019, refugee allocations were divided among five regions: Africa, East Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, and Near East/South Asia.
During the second half of Trump’s first term, Trump allocated refugee slots by “special humanitarian concern.” This included people who had been persecuted on account of religion, Iraqis with certain ties to the U.S. and people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the Congressional Research Service reported.
The State Department has also designated “groups of specific concern,” such as the Rohingya people and certain Afghan nationals, Ramji-Nogales said.
Are white South Africans being persecuted?
Experts on South Africa disagree with the idea that there is a genocide being perpetrated against white South Africans, as Trump has asserted.
“White South Africans are not being persecuted,” said Irvin Kinnes, a professor of criminology at the University of Cape Town.
In 2025, Trump said white South African farmers were being killed and their lands were being confiscated.
READ MORE: Fact-checking Trump’s claims of white farmer ‘genocide’ in South Africa
“It’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about,” he told reporters during a news conference on drug prices.
South Africa’s government pushed back against Trump’s assertion, saying it “lacks factual accuracy.”
In a 2025 meeting with Trump at the White House, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it would take Trump listening to the voices of South Africa to be convinced that there is no genocide of white South Africans.
WATCH: Trump asked about white Afrikaner persecution, plays video for South African president in Oval Office
“There is criminality in our country,” Ramaphosa said. “People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are Black people.”
Nechama Brodie, a journalist who wrote a book on farm murders in South Africa, said white South Africans have not been persecuted in the past nor are they being persecuted in the present.
“Studies consistently show that white South Africans have the highest employment levels, highest education levels and highest income levels of all groups in South Africa, despite being a minority,” Brodie said.
Brodie added that despite South Africa’s high crime rate, recent crime statistics indicate serious crimes, such as murder, have been declining.
