MAINE, USA — Maine is set to be the new home to 50 white South African refugees, and the first arrivals are expected next week, according to Maine Immigrant & Refugee Services (MEIRS).

The refugees are among only 7,500 that the Trump administration is allowing into the country, according to a Presidential Determination on refugee admissions for Fiscal Year 2026. It's a 94% cut from the cap President Joe Biden set at 125,000 refugee admissions.

Refugee resettlement 'ebbs and flows' depending on new administrations in the White House, Inza Ouattara, the state refugee coordinator through Catholic Charities Maine, said.

He said last year, Maine had 950 refugees allocated to it, and the resettlement program brought in about 500, a drastic change from this year's 50.

"The hard part of it i

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