Pew Research: Who Gets to Be a Refugee Now?

The United States has welcomed just 10,258 refugees in the first ten months of this fiscal year. That number represents real people — families who survived war, persecution, and violence, who waited years through security checks and health screenings, who did everything right — and were still turned away.

One year ago, that number was 38,102. Two years ago, it was 100,034. The collapse is not gradual. It is a deliberate policy choice, and the human cost is staggering.

The administration set this fiscal year's refugee admissions ceiling at just 17,500 — the lowest on record in more than two decades. At the same time, it fast-tracked a brand-new category of refugees: white South African Afrikaners, based on disputed claims of persecution. Before this fiscal year, South Africans had virtually never appeared among the top refugee origin groups. Now they make up nearly all of the refugees admitted. Meanwhile, the U.S. has admitted exactly three refugees from Afghanistan — a country still under Taliban rule — and zero from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has faced escalating conflict and displacement for years.

The pattern is not subtle. The people who have historically needed protection most — Afghans, Congolese, Haitians, Venezuelans, Hondurans — are being turned away. The people who fit a particular racial and political profile are being welcomed.

Leading Ladies Vote believes in humane immigration policy — one rooted in compassion, not ideology. One that honors the promise this country has made to the world's most vulnerable people. The data tells us where we are. Our votes can change where we go.

🔗 Read the full Pew Research report: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/08/17/refugee-admissions-to-the-us-are-dropping-sharply-in-trumps-second-term/