U.S. to welcome up to 17,500 more White South Africans as refugees

The Trump administration is planning to welcome up to 17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday and obtained by CBS News. 

The State Department informed congressional officials that the Trump administration is planning to allocate 17,500 refugee spots for fiscal year 2027, and that they will "primarily" go to Afrikaners, who President Trump has claimed are being oppressed for being White. Fiscal year 2027 starts in October.

While the second Trump administration has effectively shut down the U.S. refugee resettlement program for most people fleeing persecution and violence around the world, it has made an exemption for Afrikaners, resettling thousands of them over the past year and a half.

Trump administration officials have portrayed Afrikaners as victims of racial oppression in post-apartheid South Africa. The South African government has consistently denied persecuting the ethnic minority, made up of descendants of European settlers, mostly from the Netherlands. 

"Afrikaners face the seizure of agricultural property without compensation; government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business; and hateful rhetoric fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored minorities," the State Department said in its notice to Congress.

Last week, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on South African officials who it said were responsible for discriminating against Afrikaners.

The Afrikaner resettlement effort is projected to cost the U.S. government $500 million, the notice to Congress said.

"The United States anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners," the notice read.

Mr. Trump has alleged that Afrikaners face a "genocide" in South Africa. In a tense Oval Office meeting last year, he confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the claims, showing him a video that spotlighted murders of farmers in the country.  

Those claims have been strongly disputed. A "60 Minutes" report earlier this year featured Afrikaners who rejected the notion that White people are facing a "genocide" and said murders on farms were linked to a broader crime problem in South Africa that harms members of all races.