US President Donald Trump has announced that he’ll restrict the variety of refugees coming into the US to 7,500 for the fiscal yr 2026.
This can be a report low because the 1980 Refugee Act when a cap on refugees coming into the nation was set at 50,000 per yr, however could possibly be modified. That was the identical yr that the US refugee resettlement programme was launched. At present, the cap sits at 125,000, set by former President Joe Biden.
Moreover, the Trump administration mentioned precedence shall be given to white South Africans.
However whereas the brand new cap is a big drop from the variety of refugees admitted by the US in more moderen years, the US has made use of extremely restrictive and sometimes racist immigration insurance policies all through its historical past.
Who shall be allowed to take refuge within the US from 2026?
Not more than 7,500 individuals shall be granted refugee standing and these should bear very robust checks earlier than they will enter. Approval by the secretaries of state and homeland safety shall be required.
The White Home announcement reiterated that Trump additionally signed a proclamation in June that stipulates that overseas nationals can nonetheless be denied entry if permitting them into the nation would hurt the nation’s pursuits.
Why is Trump prioritising white South Africans?
Trump claims that White Afrikaaners are at risk of “genocide” in South Africa. In February this yr, he signed Govt Order 14204, titled “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa”. The order was made in response to South Africa’s Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which permits for land to be seized and redistributed.
The order criticised South Africa for seizing land owned by “ethnic minority” white South Africans. The US threatened to withhold assist to South Africa if the federal government continues with this. In Might, 59 white South Africans arrived in the US as a part of a particular refugee programme Trump established for them.
The identical month, Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa throughout a go to the White Home, solely to be ambushed by Trump with a video of individuals singing “Kill the Boer” in South Africa and allegations {that a} “white genocide” was going down.
“Persons are fleeing South Africa for their very own security. Their land is being confiscated, and in lots of circumstances, they’re being killed,” Trump mentioned throughout the assembly with Ramaphosa in Might.
Do white Afrikaaners want refugee standing?
Specialists say probably not.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Act to proper apartheid-era wrongs. Nonetheless, the legislation permits the federal government to grab privately owned land from anybody, no matter race, for public functions with compensation, or in some circumstances, with out compensation.
The Act replaces a earlier 1975 legislation, which was criticised for its lack of readability about compensation.
Throughout apartheid, white South Africans, who’re primarily Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Dutch settlers and English-speaking descendants of British colonists, held management, and sometimes violently sidelined the Black majority.
Whereas apartheid resulted in 1994, white South Africans, who signify about 7 % of the inhabitants, nonetheless personal greater than 70 % of the land, whereas greater than half of the Black inhabitants lives in poverty.
At his White Home assembly, Ramaphosa instructed Trump that whereas South Africa does have an issue with violent crime, it was being perpetrated in opposition to all South Africans, not simply white individuals.
Specialists have additionally dismissed Trump’s claims of a white genocide.
“There isn’t a benefit to Trump’s fantasy claims of white genocide,” South African historian Saul Dubow, professor of Commonwealth historical past on the College of Cambridge, instructed Al Jazeera in Might.
“South Africa is a violent nation and, in financial phrases, one of the unequal societies on the planet. The violence is prison fairly than political, although racial injustice inevitably varieties a part of the context.”
Dubow steered that Trump could also be extra indignant about South Africa’s genocide case in opposition to Israel, filed within the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023 in relation to the warfare on Gaza.
Is that this actually the strictest US cap on refugees ever?
That is the bottom cap on refugees in current historical past. In addition to being decrease than the preliminary 50,000 cap established by the 1980 Act, it is usually decrease than the earlier ceiling of 17,400 the Act sought to exchange.
Yearly, the variety of refugees allowed into the US is decided by the president in session with the US Congress. For the fiscal years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, a most of 125,000 refugees had been allowed into the US.
In 1980, the US refugee resettlement programme was established to permit the US to establish, admit and resettle refugees fleeing battle or persecution from world wide.
Previous to 1980, nevertheless, america didn’t admit vital numbers of refugees and had a historical past of extremely restrictive legal guidelines which barred individuals from particular international locations from coming into or holding citizenship.
A historical past of prohibitive immigration coverage within the US
Right here’s a timeline of some key US citizenship and immigration insurance policies which have affected individuals of particular ethnicities and nationalities.
1790: Naturalisation Act
The Naturalisation Act outlined limits on who may turn into a naturalised citizen of the US.
Based on this act, naturalisation was restricted to free white individuals who had lived within the US for 2 years and demonstrated good ethical character.
It excluded Native People, enslaved individuals and anybody who was not white.
1875: The Web page Act
Signed in March 1875 by President Ulysses S Grant, the Web page Act was the primary US federal legislation on immigration.
The legislation focused immigrants, particularly girls from Asia. It decreed that the US authorities should decide that “the immigration of any topic of China, Japan, or any Oriental nation, to america, is free and voluntary”.
The Act was worded as if it was defending weak immigrants, because it prohibited bringing girls into the US for pressured labour or intercourse work. Anybody discovered to have introduced an immigrant from an Asian nation into the US with out their consent could possibly be imprisoned and fined.
Nonetheless, critics have identified that, in apply, the Act was racist and sexist. It got here at a time when poverty and famine in China had precipitated many Chinese language individuals to hunt alternatives within the US. Particularly, Chinese language girls migrated to the US, looking for jobs, from the 1850s.
Based on an article printed by the Nationwide Council for the Social Research (NCSS), San Francisco officers began making efforts to deport Chinese language girls of “ailing fame” from the 1860s. The article added that at that time, “all Chinese language girls had been almost certainly stereotyped as prostitutes”.
The article highlights that one of many enduring impacts of the Web page Act was the stigmatisation of Asian girls. Past going through racial discrimination, Asian girls had been fetishised and sexualised culturally.
1882: The Chinese language Exclusion Act
Signed in Might 1882, the Chinese language Exclusion Act barred all Chinese language labourers from coming into the US for 10 years.
It additionally prevented Chinese language immigrants from changing into naturalised residents of the US.
The Act was prolonged by the Geary Act of 1892 and remained in place till it was repealed in 1943.
1907: The Gents’s Settlement
This was not a proper legislation – it was, fairly, an settlement between the US and Japan.
The settlement, negotiated by President Theodore Roosevelt, requested the Japanese authorities to limit the migration of Japanese labourers to the US.
In change for this, Japanese college students can be permitted to proceed to attend built-in faculties.
The settlement was drawn up in response to public anger in regards to the rising variety of Japanese labourers and agricultural staff who had migrated to fill the hole left by Chinese language staff.
1917: Asiatic Barred Zone Act
This legislation created a “barred zone” from the Center East and Southeast Asia, spanning most Asian international locations.
Nationals of those international locations had been restricted from coming into the US.
1924: The Johnson-Reed Act
This immigration act imposed strict limits on the variety of individuals from different international locations who may migrate to the US yearly.
It stipulated a “nationwide origins” quota, which decreed that solely 2 % of the variety of individuals of any nationality dwelling within the US in 1890 may enter the nation annually.
The legislation additionally utterly barred individuals from Asian international locations from immigrating to the US.
2017: Trump’s personal ‘Muslim ban’
Throughout his first time period, Trump enacted a travel ban dubbed the “Muslim ban”.
Underneath this ban, Trump signed an government order banning residents of seven Muslim-majority international locations, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, from coming into the US for 90 days.
The order additionally suspended the US refugee programme for 120 days and indefinitely barred Syrian refugees.
Trump’s journey ban went by means of subsequent rounds of revisions. The preliminary model was blocked by courts for being discriminatory.
The ultimate model, which was upheld by the Supreme Courtroom in 2018, affected residents from Yemen, Syria, Iran, Libya and Somalia alongside Venezuela and North Korea.
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an government order reversing the journey ban.
2025: Trump’s journey ban
Whereas Trump didn’t reinstate his unique journey ban throughout his second time period, he signed a proclamation in June this yr imposing an entire ban on nationals of 12 international locations from travelling to the US. Lots of them are African nations.
They embody Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Underneath this proclamation, residents from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela are topic to partial restrictions.
Citing inner authorities paperwork, US media has reported that Trump may significantly expand this journey ban checklist to incorporate 36 extra international locations, 26 of that are in Africa. The White Home has not formally introduced that the journey ban checklist has been expanded, nevertheless.
