Refugee arrivals to Alaska have nearly stopped, with four this year, all from South Africa

Refugee resettlement in Alaska has all but stopped. Four refugees have arrived in the state so far this federal fiscal year, all of them from South Africa, and all in December. Two years ago, Alaska took in 155.

No refugee has arrived in Alaska in any month since, according to State Department figures covering Oct. 1, 2025, through Aug. 31, 2026. No Afghans or Iraqis arriving on special immigrant visas, which are for people who worked with the U.S. military, were recorded in Alaska either.

Alaska's numbers had been climbing. Arrivals rose from 12 in fiscal 2021 to 155 in fiscal 2024, as national arrivals rose to about 100,000. They dropped to 54 in fiscal 2025.

That drop traces to January 2025, when President Donald Trump suspended refugee admissions by executive order. National arrivals fell from 10,285 that January to two in February. In Alaska, 50 of the 54 refugees who arrived in fiscal 2025 came before the suspension, from countries including Venezuela, Colombia and Somalia. The only arrivals after it were four South Africans in August 2025.

A federal judge in Seattle blocked parts of the suspension in 2025, in a lawsuit arguing it unlawfully dismantled the refugee program. An appeals court later narrowed that ruling, leaving protections mainly for refugees who had been conditionally approved before Jan. 20, 2025. The government has defended the suspension as within the president's authority.

The administration has made one exception a priority. A February 2025 executive order made it federal policy to "promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees" from South Africa. This year's refugee ceiling, set at 7,500 and raised to 17,500 in May, is mostly reserved for Afrikaners and others the administration considers victims of discrimination. National arrivals picked up this summer, to more than 2,500 a month in July and August. None of those refugees went to Alaska.

Refugees who are already here face another change. Under a federal law change, refugees and people granted asylum are not among the groups that keep full Medicaid coverage after Oct. 1.

The federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30. September's figures will show whether any refugees reach Alaska before it closes.