Africa-Press. The American president Donald Trump has decided to raise the annual cap on the number of refugees allowed into the United States from 7,500 to 17,500, aiming to welcome up to 10,000 Afrikaners coming from South Africa.
The decision was made in a presidential decree published in the official American journal, the Federal Register, amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Washington and Pretoria.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced a sharp reduction in the maximum number of refugees the United States would accept to only 7,500, compared to 125,000 the previous year, justifying this by prioritizing the white minority in South Africa.
According to a schedule issued by the State Department, the 4,499 individuals accepted as refugees since the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1 are all from South Africa, except for three Afghans.
The Trump administration has accused the South African authorities, without providing evidence, of “persecuting” Afrikaners, who are descendants of European settlers in the country.
Washington also criticizes South Africa’s lawsuit at the International Court of Justice against Israel for “genocide” related to the war in Gaza.
In a decision dated May 21 and published on Tuesday, Trump spoke of a “state of emergency” he claimed was caused by “increased rhetoric inciting racially motivated violence” from the South African government and major political parties in the country.
Consequently, Trump ordered an increase in the annual refugee cap of 7,500 by an additional 10,000 slots, clarifying that “these additional slots should be allocated for Afrikaners from South Africa.”
In 2025, Trump issued a decree granting Afrikaners refugee status, before the United States welcomed an initial group of about 50 individuals, a move that faced strong opposition from the Pretoria government.
The Trump administration also imposed a 30% tariff on South African products subject to American tariffs, the highest among sub-Saharan African countries.
The American administration has also boycotted the upcoming G20 summit scheduled to be held in Johannesburg in November.
Afrikaners make up the majority of the white population in South Africa, and from this group emerged the political leaders who established the apartheid system, a racial discrimination regime that deprived the black majority of most of their rights between 1948 and the early 1990s.
Upon returning to the White House, Trump had frozen the acceptance of refugees from around the world as part of his broader immigration campaign.
However, weeks later, he launched a campaign to bring white South Africans of Afrikaner descent to the United States as refugees, claiming they were victims of racial persecution in the predominantly black South Africa.
The South African government has strongly rejected these claims, which echo the conspiracy theories of the far-right.
