The Republican government made an announcement on Thursday, which was early Friday AEDT, through a notice on the Federal Register.

The notice did not explain the significant reduction in numbers from the previous year’s cap of 125,000, which had been established by the Democratic former president, Joe Biden.

Earlier reports from the Associated Press suggested that the administration was contemplating allowing as few as 7,500 refugees, predominantly from the white South African demographic.

The memo simply stated that the admission of 7,500 refugees during the 2026 fiscal year was warranted due to “humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”

This substantial cutback marks another setback for the program, which until recently enjoyed support from both political parties.

Trump suspended the program on his first day in office and since then only a trickle of refugees have entered the country, mostly white South Africans.

Some refugees have also been admitted as part of a court case seeking to allow entry to refugees who were overseas and in the process of coming to the US when the program was suspended.

The administration announced the program for the Afrikaners in February, saying that white South African farmers face discrimination and violence at home. The country’s government strongly denies this characterisation.

Across the country, groups that work to help resettle newly arrived refugees into the country have had to lay off staff as the number of people arriving under the longstanding program plummeted.