The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it would admit an additional 10,000 white South African refugees into the United States this year, raising the historically low annual cap, but would continue to bar people from other countries from entering the country through the program.
On his first day in office, Trump suspended the refugee program, and since then, he has turned it into a tool to allow white South Africans to enter the U.S. White South Africans are primarily descendants of Dutch settlers.
Trump issued a statement in the Federal Register on Tuesday stating that he had raised the refugee cap due to an “unforeseen refugee emergency.” He blamed the South African government for the “recent increases” in acts of racially motivated violence.
