The Trump administration plans to set a refugee admissions ceiling of 17 500 over the next 12 months consisting "primarily" of South Africans from the country's white Afrikaner ethnic minority, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has claimed Afrikaners face persecution based on their race in the Black-majority country, allegations the South African government has denied.

Trump paused all US refugee admissions when he took office in January 2025, saying they would only be restarted if it was in the country's best interests. Weeks later, he launched an effort to bring in Afrikaners, sparking criticism from refugee advocates who decried the exclusion of people of other nationalities fleeing persecution and violence.

The notice sent by the State Department to congressional officials said it "anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for US citizens."

Resettlement under the proposed ceiling is expected to cost approximately $500-million, the notice said.

All but three of the nearly 3 000 people admitted as refugees in the current fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, were South Africans, according to State Department data through August.

In fiscal year 2024, by contrast, the Biden administration brought in more than 100 000 refugees from dozens of countries.

“A refugee programme that centers one group and sidelines all others is an abdication of our global humanitarian leadership and an abandonment of thousands of vulnerable families,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said in a statement.