USCIS shifts entire anti-fraud unit to Afrikaner refugee and voter screening
Aug 24, 2026

Immigration officers from USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) have all been reassigned full-time to two priorities: screening South African refugee applicants, primarily Afrikaners, and screening for alleged "unlawful" noncitizen voters. Internal correspondence shows the reassignment leaves USCIS unable to provide officers to train asylum officers in the near future, as asylum processing has largely stalled under the Trump administration. State department data show 10,255 of 10,258 refugees admitted between October 2025 and July 2026 were from South Africa, with the remaining three Afghans admitted in November. A USCIS spokesperson confirmed the directorate was working on vetting priorities including election integrity and refugee screening, but did not confirm that every officer in the unit had been reassigned. Experts and a February review by the Center for Election Innovation and Research have found confirmed cases of noncitizen voting to be rare, contradicting claims by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens may have illegally registered to vote.
Sources
- US immigration officers reassigned to screen South African refugees and find ‘unlawful’ voters
The Guardian·Aug 25, 2026·archived copy
Citrix News·Aug 24, 2026
- US immigration officers reassigned to screen South African refugees and find ‘unlawful’ voters - Newsar Intel
News AR·Aug 24, 2026·archived copy
- Trump reassigns all US immigration anti-fraud officers to South Africans after they made up all but 3 refugee admissions
Black News·Aug 26, 2026
- South African refugees: USCIS shifts focus, asylum officer training stalls
Briefly·Aug 25, 2026
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