The Trump administration notified Congress on Tuesday that it intends to maintain the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program cap at 17,500 admissions for the following year, with the bulk of admissions designated for South African Afrikaners. This represents the second consecutive year of historically low refugee admissions under the current administration, a significant reduction from the program’s average of approximately 92,000 annual admissions since its inception in 1980.
For the second year in a row, refugees fleeing religious persecution will have no designated pathway into the U.S. resettlement program. This policy stands in contrast to provisions established under the Lautenberg amendment, originally enacted in 1989 to assist persecuted religious minorities from the former Soviet Union and expanded in 2004 to include persecuted religious minorities in Iran, including members of several faith traditions. Congress has reauthorized the amendment annually since its creation, including in February of this year, but no refugees from these designated humanitarian concern categories have been admitted since January 2025.
Faith-based resettlement organizations have strongly opposed the policy. HIAS, Church World Service, and Lutheran Community Services Northwest have filed litigation challenging the exclusion as discriminatory and illegal, arguing the government is violating congressional obligations. Other faith-based humanitarian groups have similarly expressed concern, with representatives characterizing the approach as abandoning vulnerable populations and contradicting longstanding American humanitarian commitments.
The White House has contended that Afrikaners face land seizures and persecution and would assimilate successfully in America, though the South African government rejects these characterizations. The administration initially set the cap at 7,500 for Afrikaners last year before increasing it to 17,500. A federal lawsuit challenging the exclusions currently awaits a decision from a U.S. District Judge in Washington state, as the government has moved to dismiss the case.
For comparison, during fiscal year 2024 under the previous administration, the U.S. admitted just over 100,000 refugees from 85 countries.
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