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The United States (US) aims to process 4500 refugee applications from white South Africans per month, far above President Donald Trump’s stated refugee program cap, and is installing trailers on embassy property in Pretoria to support the effort, a US contracting document said.
The new target, contained in a previously unreported document from the American State Department dated January 27, signals a push to ramp up admissions from South Africa, while refugee applications from other areas have been severely curtailed.
Trump has said the US would only admit 7500 total refugees from around the world in fiscal year 2026, while a much higher cap of 40 000 to 60 000 was discussed internally last year.
Only 2000 white South Africans had entered the US as refugees as of January 31 under a program launched in May 2025, although the pace has picked up in recent months.
The ambitious target could also face administrative delays in Washington, which in recent weeks have halted all refugee travel to the US, including white South Africans, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
The US State Department and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
The White House referred questions to the State Department.
The South African Chamber of Commerce in the US (SACCUSA) said last year that more than 67 000 people had expressed interest in relocating.
Trump ordered a halt to refugee admissions into the US after taking office in 2025 as part of his crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, but weeks later, he launched an effort to bring in white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity as refugees, saying they had been violently persecuted in the majority-Black country.
South Africa’s government has rejected that claim, while some refugee advocates have criticised the Trump policy.
REFUGEE PROCESSING SITE
The contracting document, posted to a US government database on Wednesday, explains the rationale for awarding the contract for the trailers without a competitive bidding process, stressing an urgent need for a secure site.
An immigration raid by South African authorities on a previous US refugee processing site on a commercial property in Johannesburg had forced the government to consider a more secure location, it said, after “operations were compromised.”
“The inability to safely process about 4500 applicants per month, an objective communicated to (the US State Department’s refugee division) from the White House, would result in failure to meet a Presidential priority,” the document said.
South African Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said his government would not interfere with the US program if it remained within legal boundaries, while reiterating Pretoria’s rejection of Trump’s claims about white South Africans.
“The assertion that Afrikaners face systemic persecution is fundamentally unsubstantiated,” he said.
Whether the US could reach the ambitious 4500 per month target remains unclear. The State Department last week cancelled all refugee travel, including for South Africans, from February 23 to March 9 due to operational factors, an email sent to applicants said.
Because of Trump’s sweeping refugee ban issued in January 2025, South Africans must be admitted as exceptions on a case-by-case basis by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem.
The US official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal operations, said DHS had delayed the approvals, creating an administrative backlog.
Prior to the pause on admissions, South African entries had been ramping up, with about 1500 admitted in December and January, compared with about 500 in the previous six and a half months, according to US State Department figures.
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www.sabcnews.com, https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/us-aims-to-process-4500-white-sa-refugees-a-month-document/
