Maine will only resettle 50 refugees through the federal refugee program in the 2026 fiscal year after President Donald Trump drastically reduced the annual refugee resettlement cap from 125,000 to just 7,500, implementors in the state say.
[RELATED: Trump Dramatically Reduces Number of Refugees To Be Accepted into the U.S….]
Maine State Refugee Coordinator Inza Ouattara, who works for Catholic Charities and administers the federal refugee resettlement program for the state, told Maine Public about the change.
He claimed that the federal program resettled 490 refugees across Maine in the 2025 fiscal year, spanning from October 1, 2024, when former President Joe Biden was still in office, to September 30, 2025, after President Donald Trump took over.
For the first full fiscal year of Trump’s presidency, which began on October 1, 2025, Maine will only receive 50 immigrants through the federal refugee program. According to the Portland Press Herald, all of those will be white Afrikaners from South Africa, who face racial discrimination in their home country.
Ouattara told the Portland paper that these refugees could arrive as soon as Friday, depending on when the government shutdown ends, and that they are considered “free cases” because there is not an existing community of Afrikaners in the state.
These will be the first white South Africans to settle in Maine under the federal refugee program.
Maine Immigrant & Refugee Services in Lewiston will handle the resettlement since both Catholic Charities Maine and the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine closed down their resettlement programs following policy changes implemented by Trump.
Trump’s drastic reduction in the refugee cap also prioritizes Afrikaner refugees from South Africa, though it does not specify how many of those 7,500 spots are reserved for them.
