Refugee admissions on track to hit record low
Shalina Chatlani
(Stateline) The number of refugees admitted to the United States during the first 10 months of the fiscal year is on pace to hit its lowest level on record, according to a new analysis.
The new numbers reflect a steep decline in refugee admissions since President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a new analysis of State Department data by the Pew Research Center.
The U.S. has admitted 10,258 refugees — nearly all of them white South Africans — in the first 10 months of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. During fiscal 2025, part of which overlapped with President Joe Biden’s term, the U.S. admitted 38,102 refugees. In the previous year, during which Biden was president the entire time, 100,034 refugees were admitted.
The Trump administration, which has sought to limit immigration of all types, has capped refugee admissions for fiscal 2026 at 17,500, the lowest level in the past 25 years.
Refugee admissions have fluctuated over time. They declined sharply after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when President George W. Bush temporarily halted application processing. And they fell again during Trump’s first term, when he restricted immigration from majority-Muslim countries. However, the U.S. admitted an average of 50,000 refugees per year between 2001 and 2026.
In February 2025, Trump issued an executive order prioritizing refugee admissions for Afrikaners — white South Africans descended from Dutch, German and French colonial settlers. Afrikaners were the primary architects of apartheid, a rigid system of racial segregation that lasted from 1948 to 1994.
About 80% of South Africans are Black. Trump’s order asserts that the country’s Black leaders have discriminated against the Afrikaners and demonstrated a “shocking disregard” for their rights by seizing their farmland without compensation. South African leaders deny that Afrikaners have been subjected to systemic persecution.
In recent years, the majority of refugees to the U.S. have come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has seen ongoing war and displacement. Many refugees also have come from countries such as Syria, Ukraine, Bhutan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Venezuela, Eritrea, Myanmar and Guatemala.
In a 2025 Pew Research Center survey of 10,357 Americans, about 36% of respondents said that it was very or extremely important to take in refugees escaping violence in other countries. Another 39% said it was somewhat important.