Donald Trump is about to have the distinction of being the first president in possibly 45 years not to permit the resettlement of a persecuted Christian or other religious minority through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
This is from a new report by World Relief and Open Doors US. Since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, the United States has embraced 3.7 million refugees at an average rate of 73,500 a year, according to “State of the Golden Door: Evaluating U.S. Refugee Resettlement and Asylum in Light of Global Christian Persecution.”
The Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant and anti-refugee posture has put a huge dent in those trends. The president severely curtailed resettlement during his first term and slashed the ceiling from 125,000 to 7,500 in 2025, then required that most of those had to be white South Africans.
“FY2026 will be the first year in at least a quarter century, and likely in the entire history of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, in which persecuted religious minorities have been completely shut out.”
In June, that refugee goal was raised to 17,500 with the same focus on Afrikaners, whom the president considers victims of racial discrimination in South Africa. Refugees have traditionally been considered those fleeing persecution in their home countries, often due to their religion.
“Notwithstanding the hardship that some South Africans have experienced, South Africa is not known to be a country which restricts religious liberty, so any hardship experienced is unlikely to be religiously motivated,” the report says.
Hence, its authors concluded not a single refugee who fled religious persecution has been resettled in the U.S. since at least the beginning of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
“Barring a significant change in U.S. policy in the final month of the federal fiscal year, we anticipate that FY2026 will be the first year in at least a quarter century, and likely in the entire history of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, in which persecuted religious minorities have been completely shut out,” the authors say.
The suffering caused to persecuted Christians has been immense. According to the report, a recent high of 32,251 Christians were resettled in 2016 but that number fell steadily during the first Trump administration to 5,378. Under President Joe Biden, Christian resettlement surged to 23,361 in 2023 and to 29,478 the following year, before plummeting again under Trump to 9,916 last year and zero this year.
Other faith groups than Christians are affected as well, including Jewish, Sabean-Mandean, Muslims, Baha’i, Zoroastrian and Yezidi. “Since 2024, refugee resettlement from all of these groups has flatlined, decreasing by 100%.”
But just being in the United States also has become a challenge for some refugees, according to the report. Last November, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began reopening the cases of about 230,000 refugees resettled during the Biden administration. “Refugees are some of the most thoroughly vetted immigrants who come to America … being admitted through an extensive process that often takes years,” the report notes.
“DHS also paused Green Card processing for eligible refugees and in January targeted 5,600 refugees in Minnesota and detained 150 during anti-immigrant sweeps in the state. A number of these refugees were released in Texas without transportation back to Minnesota, and in some cases without their documentation.”
While DHS has stopped that practice, it has switched to sending letters to refugees requiring re-interviews. “The policy continues to cause fear for refugees and their families, employers and communities, including for many whose refugee designation was based upon religious persecution,” the report explains.
Myal Greene
Ryan Brown
In an open letter included in the report, World Relief President Myal Greene and Open Doors US CEO Ryan Brown said the report’s purpose is to make the American church aware of the plight of religiously persecuted refugees.
“Our prayer is that this report would challenge the U.S. church to consider how its public witness can be marked by solidarity with fellow Christians facing extreme persecution around the world and equip believers to advocate and pray on their behalf.”
And it’s important to be concerned for non-Christians as well, Greene and Brown said.
“We also take seriously the Old Testament command to welcome the stranger, as well as Jesus’ admonition to care for the neighbor, illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan, as extending beyond those who happen to share the same ethnic or religious characteristics.”