SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The Trump administration is pushing for a reduction in the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. for the 2026 fiscal year, with most of the slots going to white South Africans.
Agencies such as the International Rescue Committee and Global Refuge helped bring about 125,000 refugees last year to the U.S., a figure that was set by the Biden administration.
The number being proposed by the White House is a drastic reduction with advocates warning it would essentially ignore up to 128,000 people who have already been vetted by the United Nations, a U.S. Embassy or an approved international group working with refugees.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the resettlement organization Global Refuge, told the AP this would be “a monumental shift in U.S. refugee policy.”
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“Not just in terms of reducing admissions, but also in terms of disproportionately privileging one group over every other,” he said. “Our concern is that this could turn what has long been a globally responsive humanitarian system into one that overwhelmingly favors a single group.”
The White House has said the refugee cap is not final until it negotiates a final number with Congress, according to the AP.
A meeting is not expected until the ongoing government shutdown ends.
The ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees that handle immigration matters have told the AP the Trump administration is “in open defiance of the law.”
“Refugees are being left in limbo,” wrote Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois.
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Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and other top Democrats on the Judiciary panels wrote a letter last week saying, “The consequences are dire, thousands of people are facing persecution abroad who have already passed the rigorous vetting requirements are being left to languish while Trump is carving out exceptions for white South African farmers, allowing Afrikaners to skip the line.”
