More white South Africans could be heading to the United States (US) after the Trump administration proposed plans to admit an additional 10 000 Afrikaner asylum seekers from South Africa, raising the refugee cap for this group to 17 500 in 2026.
The move comes as arrivals near the current ceiling of 7 500, with Washington citing an “emergency refugee situation” linked to false claims of racial persecution and threats to farming communities.
Afrikaners
The Trump administration’s decision, unveiled on 19 May, is expected to cost $100 million and follows a February 2025 executive order prioritising Afrikaner resettlement while cutting aid to South Africa.
Afrikaners now account for 99% of refugee admissions since October 2025, highlighting the programme’s sharp focus compared with restrictions on other nationalities.
US officials falsely claim Afrikaners face race‑based discrimination, escalating hostility and targeted violence, particularly against farmers.
Expansion
The State Department said the expansion was necessary to protect lives and uphold humanitarian obligations.
US President Donald Trump has justified the administration’s decision to resettle Afrikaners in the US by citing false claims that “a genocide is taking place” in South Africa and that “White farmers are being brutally killed and their land confiscated.”
Trump and Ramaphosa
In May last year, Trump confronted Ramaphosa during a meeting at the Oval Office in Washington about the “genocide” against white South Africans and Afrikaner farmers.
Trump proved to be a political rottweiler for Afrikaners and white farmers and shifted the focus from what began as a cordial discussion with Ramaphosa to farm attacks in South Africa.
‘SA out of control’
It followed Trump’s claim that “South Africa was out of control”.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump claimed farmers in South Africa are being “treated brutally”.
“From all evidence, the farmers in South Africa are being treated brutally, it’s been reported, and nobody wants to cover it. But they happened to be white, and if they were black, I would do the exact same thing (granting asylum).
“We treat people very well where we see a genocide going on. So, it’s a genocide, that’s terrible, and I happen to believe it could very well be. South Africa is out of control, and it’s been out of control for a very long time, and the media doesn’t report it,” Trump claimed.
Malema
During the bilateral talks, which played out before the media, Trump showed videos of EFF leader Julius Malema to support his false belief in genocide against whites in the country, asking why Malema has not been arrested.
The videos also showed MK party leader Jacob Zuma singing similar, apparently anti-white, songs from the struggle years.
Trump also produced a sheaf of article print-outs, which he claimed to be evidence of the South African “genocide”. It was later reported that many of these documents were not even from incidents in South Africa.
No genocide
Pretoria criticised the decision by the US to prioritise refugee applications from white Afrikaners, saying claims of a white genocide have been widely discredited and lack reliable evidence.
CNN has investigated the claims of White “genocide” in South Africa and found no evidence to back them up.
‘Risks to Afrikaners’
The emergency determination cited remarks by Ramaphosa and an incident last year in which Pretoria questioned US personnel on assignment in the country.
“This escalating hostility heightens the risks to Afrikaners in South Africa, who are already subject to far-reaching government-sponsored race-based discrimination,” the report stated.
“For these reasons, a revised ceiling of 17,500 is justified by grave humanitarian concerns and in the national interest as detailed in E.O. 14204 and will further the U.S. foreign policy interests described in that order.”
Debate
The policy has sparked fierce debate. Supporters in the US frame it as a moral duty to protect a vulnerable minority, while critics warn it undermines the credibility of refugee policy by prioritising one group over others facing war and persecution globally.
Eskom’s debt crisis, land reform policies and violent crime statistics have all been cited in the broader narrative, but Pretoria maintains Afrikaners are not persecuted as a collective.
Challenges
The government argues that land reform laws apply broadly and that violent crime is a national challenge.
With municipal debt soaring and political tensions rising, the Afrikaner asylum programme underscores how domestic US politics and South Africa’s internal challenges are colliding on the international stage.
The Citizen has reached out to the State Department, the US Embassy in South Africa and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) for comment.
