President Donald Trump's overhaul of US refugee policies has created a major shift in the number and nationalities of people admitted to the country, according to government data.
Since October 2025, 4,499 refugees were resettled in the US, as reported by the Refugee Processing Center. All except three from Afghanistan were South African.
In the last full fiscal year of the Biden administration, which started in October 2023, 125,000 people were accepted from 85 countries.
Last year, Trump halted all refugee admissions, including for applicants from warzones, but allowed Afrikaners, a white minority group he said was persecuted, to seek resettlement. South Africa objected to his characterization.
In announcing the change, Trump mentioned it would help strengthen national security and public safety.
The Trump administration indicated priority would be given to Afrikaner South Africans and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.
Diplomatic tensions between Washington and Pretoria have been rising since Trump returned to the White House. Just over a year ago, South Africa's ambassador in the US, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing Trump of mobilising a supremacism and trying to project white victimhood as a dog whistle.
In May, Trump confronted his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, claiming white farmers in South Africa were targets of persecution and genocide. Ramaphosa refuted Trump's assertions, backed by John Steenhuisen, the white leader of the Democratic Alliance, affirming that most South African farmers wish to remain in their country and make it work.
In October, the South African government criticized the US decision to prioritize refugee applications from white Afrikaners, claiming that allegations of a white genocide have been discredited. This was echoed by an open letter from prominent Afrikaner community members who rejected this narrative, calling the relocation scheme racist.
The first group of 68 South African refugees arrived in the US in May last year. Throughout February and March, the arrivals increased significantly, totaling 2,848 individuals.
The refugees have been resettled across the US, with the highest concentration of 543 individuals living in Texas.
