Afrikaner refugee applicants began receiving unappealable rejection letters on 30 June, according to the Guardian, which reviewed copies of the correspondence. The rejections come from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the same agency processing applications under a program established by President Donald Trump’s February 2025 executive order that expanded refugee eligibility to members of a “racial minority” in South Africa while shutting down resettlement for others fleeing war and persecution.

More than 13,000 Afrikaners have moved to the US under the program since the first group of 68 white South Africans arrived in May 2025, according to State Department figures. Arrivals accelerated to more than 2,600 in August alone.

The standard rejection letter reads: “We are writing to inform you that, following review, USCIS [US Citizenship and Immigration Services] found your application to be ineligible for continued processing for resettlement to the United States at this time. This cannot be appealed.”

It remains unclear how many applicants have been found ineligible. USCIS did not provide data on the total number of refugee applications and rejections when asked by the Guardian. A WhatsApp group set up to support rejected applicants, called Hope beyond the Letter, had 311 members as of 10 September, according to one of the group’s administrators, who noted that membership fluctuates.

That administrator, a 64-year-old freelance television professional who asked not to be identified, told the Guardian that his case was initially “recommended for approval” before being reversed because his ex-girlfriend, with whom he had applied, had a marijuana conviction. “I cried like a baby,” he said of receiving the rejection letter on 30 June, after finishing the screening process in November. “It was something I actually believed was attainable. I believed the hype.”

A couple identified only as Pieter and Liesl were told they were “conditionally approved” last November. Both are Afrikaners who had a grandparent killed on a farm and were managing a farm when they applied. Pieter said he was convicted of trespassing in 2014, for which he paid a fine and did not appear in court, and he had been granted multiple temporary visas to work on farms in the US between 2011 and 2024. The couple’s youngest daughter was born in the US and is a US citizen, but USCIS recorded her nationality as South African in its files and incorrectly stated she would be left behind if they moved to the US as refugees. The couple had already sold their house, car and many of their possessions when they received a rejection letter on 24 July. “We have to start all over again,” Pieter said.

A 67-year-old applicant blamed not being able to speak in his native Afrikaans for what he claimed were misunderstandings that led to him and his wife being rejected. The reasons given in response to his Freedom of Information Act request were “crime involving moral turpitude” and “commission of acts of torture or extra judicial killing.” The man acknowledged shooting at least one black person while working as a security guard in 1995, but said it was in self-defense while responding to the mass break-in of an alcohol shop. “I was thoroughly investigated by the authorities,” he said. “I was not charged, because I did not break the law.”

In an emailed statement that did not address specific cases, USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said: “The Department of Homeland Security is committed to resettling Afrikaner refugees who are being persecuted by the South African government. [USCIS] reviews each refugee application on a case-by-case basis … [and] notifies aliens found ineligible for continued processing through the US Refugee Admissions Program, including those found ineligible for public safety concerns or criminal histories. This cannot be appealed. This administration will always prioritize the safety and welfare of the American people.”

The Guardian’s reporting describes Afrikaners — descended from Dutch and French settlers — as having ruled South Africa during apartheid, a regime that repressed the black majority while keeping white people safe and wealthy. Since the end of apartheid more than 30 years ago, affirmative action policies have helped to create a black elite and middle class, though about 38% of black South Africans are unemployed compared with 9% of white South Africans, according to official data cited by the Guardian. The Guardian reports that “black economic empowerment” policies, alongside high crime rates that affect everyone, have fostered a feeling among some white South Africans that they are now victims of racial discrimination.

The Guardian reports that the racist far right has long highlighted brutal murders of white South African farmers, claiming them as evidence of white people being targeted, though official crime data does not show farmers or white people experiencing crime at higher rates. Trump has amplified claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa — a characterization the Guardian describes as false — in the face of the South African government’s furious rebuttals.