All US immigration officers from a key anti-fraud unit have been reassigned by Donald Trump’s administration to focus on screening South African refugees and alleged “unlawful” voters. The Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) officers have been shifted full-time to two “high-priority” initiatives, according to internal correspondence seen by The Guardian.
This reassignment means that US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be unable to provide officers to train asylum officers in the “near future”. USCIS, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been central to the Trump administration's immigration policies during his second term.
The refugee-screening initiative is part of the Trump administration's effort to reduce US refugee resettlement while prioritizing admissions of South Africans, primarily Afrikaners. US officials claim these individuals face racial discrimination and “white genocide”, a claim rejected by the South African government as unfounded and politically motivated. From October 2025 to July 2026, 10,255 of the 10,258 refugees admitted to the US were from South Africa.
The second priority, screening for “unlawful voters,” is reportedly part of a broader administration effort to identify noncitizens alleged to have registered or voted in US elections. Experts have expressed skepticism regarding the significance of this issue. A February 2026 review by the Center for Election Innovation and Research identified approximately 35 such cases nationwide in the 2024 general election, out of about 154 million votes cast.