President Donald Trump is making good on his promise to bring more white South Africans into the U.S., after falsely claiming the demographic is facing a “genocide” in their home country.
Of 6,069 people admitted to the U.S. with refugee status since October, all but three were from South Africa, according to reporting from the Washington Post. Trump plans to add around 10,000 more Afrikaners to that number to achieve the State Department’s goal of 17,500.
The president has become a champion for white South Africans, specifically Afrikaners, an ethnic group descended from Dutch, French, and German settlers who came to South Africa in the 17th century and made up the country’s ruling class until the end of apartheid in 1994. South Africa, which is 80% Black, has been led by Black presidents since 1994, beginning with the first Black chief executive, anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.
Trump claims that white farmers are being persecuted in South Africa because of their race to justify his resettlement program. This is mainly due to his interpretation of a 2022 policy by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa meant to address the land inequality issue in the country. In 2017, the African nation’s government reported 72% of the agricultural land in South Africa was owned by white South Africans, who make up 7% of the population, versus the 4% owned by the Black majority. Trump said Ramaphosa’s attempt to tackle the issue was attacking white South Africans.
Researchers have also found that violent attacks in South Africa, even those that target farmers, affect people of all races.
Initially, Trump’s resettlement program aimed to admit 7,500 South Africans, but on Monday, the White House said it will add 10,000 to that target, saying “unforeseen developments in South Africa created an emergency refugee situation.” Though Trump has become empathetic to this cause, his administration has otherwise mainly executed anti-immigration policies, like suspending the Refugee Admissions Program when he took office in 2025.
President Ramaphosa met with Trump last May, as relations between the countries were becoming more tense. The U.S. leader and administrators showed Ramaphosa printed articles and a five-minute video as evidence of South Africa’s persecution of its white farmers, though some of the information proved to be false.
The South African government has denied Trump’s claims. Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for the country’s international relations department, told the Associated Press in October, “The claim of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa is widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence,” adding that many South Africans are not interested in the program.
