Since 2025, Department of Homeland Security refugee agents have operated exclusively in South Africa, where President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed white citizens are under threat, NOTUS reported Thursday. Working through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, these agents interview applicants and determine whether they qualify for resettlement in the U.S.

The result has been a striking shift in who gets in. By June, 99.9 percent of refugees admitted in fiscal year 2026 — 7,727 out of 7,730 — were from South Africa. By comparison, in the year before Trump took office, just one South African refugee was admitted.

Veterans of the system have said the singular focus on one ethnic group is without precedent.

“To basically repurpose the entire refugee program and concentrate all of its resources on one location for one politically and racially favored group and then exclude everyone else is, frankly, heartbreaking,” Jason Marks, a former USCIS employee, told NOTUS.