During the second Trump administration, Nevada has gone from accepting hundreds of refugees annually to about 90.

All the refugees accepted into Nevada from October to May have been South African, according to the latest data from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

The changes are in part due to a controversial new program from the Trump administration dubbed "Mission South Africa." The program is aimed at granting asylum to white South Africans nationwide, based on the idea that their racial status makes them vulnerable to discrimination and persecution in their country postapartheid. To qualify, individuals must be Afrikaner — typically a white South African of Dutch descent —or another racial minority in the country. 

Although the South African government has called claims of persecution unfounded, President Donald Trump has pushed to expand the program. In May, his administration said it plans to admit up to 10,000 more South Africans into the U.S. as refugees in the coming months.

The new program — as well as a new annual refugee cap of 7,500 — has forced some organizations in Nevada to refocus their mission, especially as federal funding for other refugee programs has been cut. For years, Nevada has accepted thousands of refugees from conflict-ridden countries such as Afghanistan and Venezuela, and is home to an estimated 18,500 refugees. But the new limits could affect the efforts of Nevada's three resettlement organizations — the African Community Center, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and the Northern Nevada International Center — to connect refugees with resources such as transportation, housing and employment.

Spokespeople for the African Community Center and the Northern Nevada International Center declined interviews. Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada was not available for comment before deadline. 

The Governor's Office for New Americans — which is responsible for delegating federal funds to those organizations —  also did not respond to an interview request. 

However, Carina Black, executive director of the Northern Nevada International Center — one of the state's three established resettlement agencies — told KUNR in late 2025 that the federal government told them "you either resettle South Africans or you shut down." On the organization's podcast, she called the decrease in refugees a "tough pill to swallow," especially after having visited major refugee camps in Kenya and seen people starving or staying in camps for decades. 

"It's infuriating that a group of people, because of their skin color, could jump ahead of millions of people who are starving and who really have fled conflict," Black told My News 4 late last year. 

Since it was established in 2016 as a resettlement organization, the Northern Nevada International Center has helped resettle nearly 1,200 refugees, connecting them with social services and English language classes, as well as helping them integrate into the community. This year, Black said on the Northern Nevada International Center's podcast, the number will be minimal. 

"Last year we resettled about 450 individuals," Black said. "This year it will be a very low number."

In 2025, a federal funding freeze forced the Northern Nevada International Center to cut dozens of jobs and end several cultural exchange programs. Although the center has since looked at rehiring staff, Black said that the federal changes made her realize that being "90 percent federally funded is not a great idea," and the organization is increasingly looking toward private-public partnerships.

Funding for refugee services across the state has also decreased. This year, funding for Nevada's refugee support services program — which helps connect individuals with employment and supportive services — dropped from $6.5 million to about $2.5 million. Support for the federal Refugee Medical Assistance program has decreased by about 35 percent nationally. The period in which individuals are eligible to use that cash and medical assistance has been slashed from 12 to four months. 

There have been changes underway in some of the state's other resettlement organizations. In a recent state meeting, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada said it was able to help about 1,300 refugee-eligible individuals so far this fiscal year out of the 17,000 who qualified for assistance. 

In comparison, the organization reported that in 2024 it assisted more than 8,000 people seeking refuge or asylum in Nevada.

"There are priority groups that we have to address with those fund decreases," said Carisa Lopez-Ramirez, a representative for the Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, during a state meeting earlier this month, but she didn't specify whom she was referring to.  

Ramirez pointed out that the organization has dealt with similarly low funds for refugees in the past, mentioning that the organization helped around 1,000 individuals in 2022. That year, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada received about $1.9 million for supportive services and more than $1 million for cash and medical assistance for refugees. 

"The drop wasn't just suddenly a change in that they're not going to finance it anymore?" state Sen. Robin Titus (R-Wellington) asked rhetorically during a state meeting. "The drop was correlated with the number of actual refugees that have come to the United States."