The Trump administration will cap the U.S. refugee resettlement ceiling for fiscal year 2026 to a historic low, drawing criticism from Christian aid organizations who say it abandons bona fide refugees already approved for resettlement, including persecuted Christians.
The White House posted the announcement, initially drafted in late September, in the Federal Register on Thursday, noting that the number of refugees to be accepted annually will be 7,500, with a special focus on Afrikaners from South Africa. The figure represents a sharp decline from the 125,000 ceiling set under the final fiscal year of the Biden administration.
“The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa pursuant to Executive Order 14204, and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands,” stated the document.
“Refugee admissions under this determination, which may reach but not exceed the numerical limit described herein, are in all respects subject to the requirements of other Presidential policies and actions, whether issued prior or subsequent to this determination.”
While the Biden administration set the U.S. refugee ceiling at around 125,000 per year from 2022 to 2025, that figure was up from the 85,000 ceiling during the final year of the Obama administration and 18,000 during the final year of Trump’s first administration, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Despite the 125,000 refugee ceiling, around 25,000 and 60,000 refugees were resettled in the U.S. in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, respectively. Over 100,000 refugees were admitted in fiscal year 2024.
Myal Greene, president of the refugee resettlement organization World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Assocation of Evangelicals, said in a statement that the announcement is “heartbreaking,” asserting that “we harm our standing in the world and our own economic vitality.”
In January, World Relief and several other Christian organizations, including the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, urged Trump to set a refugee ceiling of no less than 50,000, which they said is consistent with the refugee ceiling set in the first year of Trump’s first presidency in 2017.
“At a time when there are more refugees globally than ever in recorded history, when Christians and others face horrific persecution on account of their faith, the U.S. will do less than ever to offer refuge,” Greene said Thursday.
“What’s more, a myopic focus on Afrikaners means that individuals who are at much greater risk — including persecuted Christians and others fleeing religious persecution from places like Nigeria, Iran and Burma.”
Greene warned that “advocates for democracy and human rights living under totalitarian regimes; and Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s brutal war — will be effectively abandoned.”
Amidst reports of a reduction in refugee resettlement, Church World Service, a cooperative ministry among dozens of denominations, issued a statement signed by multiple denominational leaders, claiming that the administration “turns its back on families in desperate need.”
“Worse still, the White House has made clear that destroying this highly successful, life-saving program isn’t enough — it now seeks to transform that program into something unrecognizable and unworthy of its proud history,” stated the faith leaders.
“By drastically reducing the number of refugees to be admitted in the coming year, and by prioritizing Afrikaners from South Africa for nearly all those slots, the White House is shamefully abandoning the tens of thousands of bona fide refugees who have already been vetted and approved for resettlement in the US.”
Since February, the Trump administration has prioritized resettling white South African refugees in the United States, amid disputed claims that they are being persecuted in their homeland.
In May, the Episcopal Church announced that it is ending its refugee resettlement partnership with the U.S. government over a request to resettle a group of Afrikaners.
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe released a letter stating that the denomination cut ties in part because he believed the Afrikaners were getting “preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.”
“I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country,” Rowe wrote.
“Now that we are ending our involvement in federally funded refugee resettlement, we have asked the administration to work toward a mutual agreement that will allow us to wind down all federally funded services by the end of the federal fiscal year in September.”
