Trump's Refugee Policy: Prioritizing White South Africans

0:00It's April 10th. I'm Corey with The Story. This is Calgary News Today, driven by AI. President Trump slashed the refugee cap to just 7,500 for fiscal year 2026, starting October 1st. So far, only 4,499 people have been admitted since last October, with 4,496 coming. Straight from South Africa and just three from Afghanistan. That's a huge shift. Including white South Africans at the top of the list, over folks fleeing wars and poverty elsewhere. This comes after the Biden-Admin said a 125,000 ceiling for the prior year, though they only let in about 38,000 from over 60 countries in their last four months. Before Trump's second term, South Africa had sent just five refugees total since 2001. Trump paused the whole program with an executive order on day one, saying the U.S. couldn't handle big numbers without hurting security and resources. Trump's team called out South Africa's government for what they say is violence against white

1:02African-nure farmers, a minority group from European roots. In a tense oval office meetup with President Cyril Ramaphosa back in February 2025, Trump pushed claims of mass killings, even showing, a video of crosses he called a burial site. It was actually a memorial for two farmers murdered in 2020. South African experts in police data pushed back hard, noting most farm killings hit black workers amid high crime rates, not a targeted genocide. Fast forward to last May, they launched a fast track for these white South Africans based on those discrimination claims. The first 68 arrived in, but things ramped up. 3,779 hit U.S. soil in the first three months of this year alone. Minors make up about 2.7 million in a 62 million population that's over 80% black and they're thriving in business, sports and government today. This policy flip prioritizes assimilation and U.S. interests, flipping the script on

2:02traditional refugee flows from hot zones like Congo or Myanmar. As numbers stay low, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out through the fiscal year.