The Trump administration has submitted a proposal to Congress to increase the refugee admissions ceiling for white South Africans to 17 500 for fiscal year 2026, according to an emergency determination obtained by CNN.
According to CNN, the proposal represents more than double the current ceiling of 7 500, which was set last year as the administration redirected the US refugee programme to focus almost exclusively on white South Africans, or more specifically, Afrikaners.
The emergency determination cites “escalating hostility” from the South African government and claims that Afrikaners face “far-reaching government-sponsored race-based discrimination” and grave humanitarian concerns.
President Donald Trump has justified the administration’s decision to resettle Afrikaners in the US by claiming that “a genocide is taking place” in South Africa, saying that “white farmers are being brutally killed and their land confiscated”.
However, South African authorities have strongly denied these claims. CNN’s investigation into the claims of white “genocide” in South Africa found no evidence to support them.
Background to the controversy
Trump first raised the issue of white South African farmers in August 2018, when he tweeted that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study “large scale killing of farmers” and land seizures in South Africa.
The South African government immediately rejected the claims as “completely false” and accused the US president of stoking racial divisions.
In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order to cut aid to South Africa and facilitate the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees. The first group of 59 white South African refugees arrived in the United States on 12 May 2025 at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
During a White House meeting in May 2025, Trump reportedly confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa with videos and photos he claimed were evidence of genocide. Ramaphosa maintained that the claims were “nonsense” and emphasised that South Africa is a constitutional democracy committed to the rule of law.
The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation has repeatedly criticised the refugee programme, stating it is based on a “factually inaccurate premise”.
What the statistics show
Official data from the South African Police Service paints a different picture to Trump’s claims. For the fourth quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year (January to March 2025), SAPS reported six murder cases in farming communities. A breakdown showed that three were employees, two were farmers, and one was a farm dweller.
In the 2023-2024 financial year, 49 murders were recorded on farms, representing approximately 0.2% of total murders in South Africa. Official crime statistics do not consistently record the race of victims, but data from specific periods, such as the first quarter of 2025, indicated that the majority of victims in recorded farm homicides were black.
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Researchers and government officials maintain that farmers and those living in rural areas are vulnerable to violent crime due to their remote locations, rather than being targeted based on race.
Multiple investigations, including those by government and independent bodies, have found no evidence of a political campaign or systematic effort to force white farmers off their land through violence. No legal body or international organisation has found evidence meeting the threshold for genocide under international law, including the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 1998 Rome Statute.
No major South African political party, including those representing the Afrikaner or white community, has officially claimed that a genocide is occurring.
Current refugee programme
Under US law, the administration must consult with Congress on the annual refugee ceiling. Last year, the administration restricted the number of refugees allowed to enter the country annually to 7 500, with a focus on white South Africans, slashing the previous year’s ceiling of 125 000 and excluding many of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
To be eligible for the refugee programme, applicants must be South African nationals, be of Afrikaner ethnicity or a member of a racial minority in South Africa, be able to articulate a past experience of or fear of future persecution, be at least 18 years old, and be living inside South Africa.
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