WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, a new U.S. visa restriction policy aimed at foreign nationals the administration says are responsible for or complicit in laws or policies that enable uncompensated land seizures, race-based discrimination, and/or the incitement of imminent violence against minority groups in South Africa, according to a State Department statement also carried by the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.

Rubio said the policy rests on Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which lets the secretary deem inadmissible any alien whose entry “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The statement says certain family members may also be covered. Rubio did not release a public list of names.

The announcement cites President Trump’s Executive Order 14204, “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa,” and repeats administration claims of “racially motivated crime and government-sponsored discrimination” against Afrikaners and other minorities — including race-based legislation, threats of land expropriation without compensation, and incitement through “dehumanizing chants and slogans.” Those characterizations are the U.S. government’s; South Africa has repeatedly rejected allegations of a “white genocide” or systematic persecution of white South Africans, and Pretoria says land-reform legislation does not authorize arbitrary seizures, the BBC reported.

The embassy posting mirrored Rubio’s language and, in reporting carried by the BBC, warned that the visa policy is “only the first step in a series of escalatory measures.” Rubio urged Pretoria to “quickly address these egregious actions.” Relations have worsened since Trump returned to office — including aid cuts, the expulsion of South Africa’s ambassador, refugee offers to Afrikaners fleeing what Washington calls persecution, and high tariffs — while South Africa denies the core U.S. claims and notes crime data do not show white South Africans disproportionately targeted, according to the BBC.

Dated Tuesday–Wednesday, Sept. 15–16, 2026: Rubio announces INA 212(a)(3)(C) visa bars tied to alleged race-based discrimination and uncompensated land seizures in South Africa; family members may be covered; no public list; embassy frames it as the first of escalatory steps; contested “white genocide” claims attributed to the administration, not established fact.

Sources