Thursday, October 15, 2026
Current federal policy limits legal refugee admissions essentially to white South Africans, specifically Afrikaners. Congressional candidates, including incumbents, on Long Island and beyond need to state whether they support this policy, which has existed without sufficient Congressional or public attention. The public has a right to know.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program.” It imposed a ban on a program that has for decades — with longstanding bipartisan support — provided a legal way for refugees fleeing persecution in other countries to be vetted and, if approved, resettled in this country.
On Oct. 30, the administration announced an exception to the ban: It would limit the number of refugees admitted to the United States to 7,500 — a dramatic decline from the target of 125,000 in 2024 — and they would mostly be white South Africans. As the Associated Press reported at the time, the federal notice “made no mention of any other specific groups to be admitted besides the white South Africans, known also as Afrikaners.”
Afrikaners, it should be noted, have a long history of supporting and implementing white supremacy. It was Afrikaners who led the South African government after World War II, when it created a formal system of racial apartheid.
As NPR Illinois reports, “In 1948, the Afrikaner-led government began to implement apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation that benefited whites. Black people and other non-white South Africans were displaced and dispossessed. Apartheid ended in 1994 with the formation of a new, democratic government led by anti-apartheid activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela.”
On May 26, the Trump administration announced that it would admit another 10,000 white South Africans as refugees, while essentially continuing to ban people from other countries. The State Department issued data on Aug. 5, revealing that the U.S. had accepted 10,258 refugees in the fiscal year, all but three of whom were South Africans.
On Sept. 25, Trump issued a Presidential Determination limiting refugee admissions in the new fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, to an additional 17,500, primarily Afrikaners from South Africa. No other country was mentioned.
Afrikaners aren’t simply among those being admitted. They are virtually the only people being admitted. That’s clearly a statement of principle rather than a reflection of the state of the world.
The president is only required to inform Congress, so Congress may avoid taking a position, but clearly the president can make changes during the new fiscal year, as he did previously. At a minimum, Congress should state how this policy reflects American values, and if members support or oppose it.
By his actions, Trump is using the legal refugee admissions policy primarily to bring to the U.S. members of the Afrikaner community, which implemented white supremacy through apartheid in South Africa. By his actions he is publicly affirming that system.
It’s important to keep in mind that the U.S. had its own systems of apartheid against Blacks: slavery and then Jim-Crow segregation. The president’s actions are a clear signal to white supremacists in the U.S. that he wants to extend that legacy.
After all, from Day One of the Trump administration, the combination of the president’s executive orders, related Congressional actions and sought-after Supreme Court decisions have removed Blacks from federal jobs without cause, and stripped them of civil rights that ensured their right to vote and their right not to be denied housing due to discrimination based on race and other protected attributes.
This Afrikaner resettlement in the U.S. is a stunning act by the president. It deserves to be discussed and debated by those seeking to serve in Congress. Candidates for Congress on Long Island, including incumbents, need to make clear whether they support this federal policy. The federal refugee admissions program was created by an act of Congress, the Refugee Act of 1980. How can Congress not care about how the program is used?
The question — Do you support the current federal policy on refugee admissions? — is one that requires a simple yes or no answer. Yet that answer will speak volumes about each candidate.
Elaine Gross is founder and president emerita of ERASE Racism, the regional civil rights organization based on Long Island.
