Refugee Council USA Decries Trump Administration’s Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for FY 2027 that Discriminates Against Refugees Most At Risk and Shamefully Rejects the Most Vulnerable

Washington, DC – Following last week’s Congressional consultations with senior Trump administration officials, the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions (PD) for Fiscal Year 2027, signed September 25, was released October 1 and is planned for publication October 2. The document lays out a plan to admit “up to 17,500” individuals, “primarily allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa,” through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). The PD also explicitly leaves in place the indefinite and unlawful refugee ban, which violates and effectively suspends the statutory framework for resettling refugees established by Congress, as well as the expanded travel ban that, beyond the scope of the PD, suspended the entry of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders – Afghans who assisted the U.S. mission.

Under the FY 2026 PD, approximately 95 percent of the USRAP arrivals to the United States were Afrikaners. The FY 2027 PD continues a persistent pattern of racial animus and unjust, disparate treatment of refugees. At a time when the scale of displacement includes more than 41.6 million refugees worldwide, the administration’s plans to allocate its refugee admissions target for Afrikaners leaves stranded the most at-risk refugees in need of protection, such as those from Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Burma, Ukraine, and Venezuela. We also cannot turn a blind eye to the reverberating impact the administration’s unlawful actions have had on previously resettled refugees who are now subject to the administration’s cruel and wasteful “re-vetting” process. 

“The Trump administration has corrupted the U.S. resettlement program for a harmful ideological agenda that violates our moral call to welcome and our legal obligations under federal law. Turning our backs on refugees is turning our backs on our own humanity,” said John Slocum, Executive Director of RCUSA. “A resettlement program that admits only one population at the exclusion of tens of thousands of at-risk refugees around the world does not constitute meaningful refugee protection. The United States is abandoning Burmese and Sudanese families fleeing brutal regimes and war zones, Congolese and Eritrean survivors of rape and ethnic violence, Afghan allies promised safety after risking their lives alongside U.S. forces, and countless others, including families and loved ones waiting for reunification. Elected officials and Americans across the country insist that we should continue providing safe haven on a nondiscriminatory basis to those fleeing war and persecution. The American people deserve better.”

RCUSA calls for a full resumption of refugee processing and resettlement under a nondiscriminatory framework to protect the most at-risk refugees. These guardrails must be coupled with necessary investments in the capacity to welcome, including full restoration of food, medical, and other public assistance to resettled refugees. At minimum, these should include steps to resettle:

• The refugees who had been conditionally-approved for resettlement to the United States and had been left stranded, as of January 2025 when the refugee ban went into effect through EO 14163, such as Rohingya refugees fleeing genocide in Burma.
• Afghan allies stranded abroad, such as those still located at Camp As Salyiyah (CAS) and those referred to (and eligible for) the Afghan P-2 program, at risk due to their U.S. affiliation.
• Families for reunification to the United States, such as via the Follow-to-Join Program.
• Persecuted religious minorities, through the Lautenberg Program, among them Christian, Jewish, and Baha’i communities – including those currently at increased risk amid escalating violence in Iran – as well as certain particularly vulnerable refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. 
• U.S.-Affiliated Iraqis, such as employees of U.S. non-governmental organizations and media organizations or certain family members of U.S. citizens, green card holders, and others, under the Iraqi Direct Access Program.
• Particularly vulnerable children through the U.S. Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) program, which provides the only lifesaving option for refugee children who do not have a parent or relative available to provide for their long-term care.

RCUSA’s previous statement on the FY 2027 Presidential Determination ahead of congressional consultations is available here.

Media Contact: Meredith Owen, meredithowen@rcusa.org 

RCUSA is a diverse coalition advocating for just and humane laws and policies, and the promotion of dialogue and communication among government, civil society, and those who need protection and welcome. Individual RCUSA members do not all address all refugee-related issues, nor do all individual members approach common refugee-related issues identically.

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