WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) – In early July, the top officials at the US embassy in South Africa reached out to Washington to explain controversial US policies.
President Donald Trump’s February executive order, establishing the program, specified that it was “for Africans in South Africa, who are victims of unfair racism.”
On a diplomatic cable sent on July 8th, the embassy asked about the David Green issue and whether the embassy could handle claims from other minority groups claiming racially based discrimination, such as “colored” South Africans. In South Africa, the term colored refers to mixed people. This is a classification created by the apartheid regime, which is still used today.
The answer is an email from Spencer Kretchien, the top official in the State Department’s Refugee and Immigration Department, who said the program is aimed at white people.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the exact language of emails explained to the press by three sources familiar with the content.
The State Department did not specifically comment on email or cable in response to a request for comment on July 18, but explained that the policy is broader than Chretien’s email guidance.
The agency said the US policy is to consider both Africans and other racial minorities for resettlement, and guidance posted on its website in May stated that applicants must be “an African ethnicity or a member of the South African racial minority.”
Chretien declined to comment through a State Department spokesman. Greene did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The front and rear of the interior between the embassy and the State Department, although not previously reported, shows confusion in how policies are implemented designed to support white Africans in racially diverse countries, including mixed-race people who speak Africans and mixed-race peoples, including white English-speaking people.
So far, the State Department has resettled 88 South Africans under the programme, including the first group of 59 people who arrived in May. Another 15 are expected to arrive by the end of August, one source said.
Trump, a Republican who pledged the White House to crack down on wide immigration, has given an indefinite freeze on refugee hospitalizations from around the world after taking office, saying the US will only recognize refugees who can be “completely and properly assimilated.”
A few weeks later, he issued executive orders calling for the US to resettle Africans, describing them as victims of “violence against racially disadvantaged landowners.”
Since the executive order, US diplomats working on implementing the program have internally deliberated which racial groups are considered eligible, one source said.
On Cable on July 8, Green laid out a summary of the various ethnic and racial groups around the country before seeking eligibility guidance. In addition to South Africans who are mixed with Africans, Greene mentioned indigenous South Africans known as the Koizan people.
He also expressed interest in the Jewish community, but said in South Africa they are considered religious minorities rather than racial groups.
“In the absence of other guidance, (the US Embassy) will consider the basis claims of race-based persecution of other racial minorities,” Green wrote.
At least one family identified as “Colored” has already travelled to the US as refugees, the two familiar with the issue said.
The cable forced us to clarify our position on whether the policy was white only and whether it included other victimized minorities that qualify.
Chretien is a conservative who wrote Op-Eds, which promotes the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” plan to overhaul the federal government, and is a senior official in the Department of State Population, Refugees and Immigration Bureau.
During the apartheid era, which ended with the first democratic election in 1994, South Africa maintained a racially segregated society with separate schools, neighborhoods and public facilities for those classified as black, colored, white or Asian.
Black people make up 81% of South Africa’s population, according to 2022 census data. Colored South Africans account for 8% and Indians account for 3%. Africans and other white South Africans make up 7% of the population, but they own three-quarters of the country’s private property.
When asked about the program in May, Trump said he is not treating Africans first because he is white.
“They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or black, it’s no different to me,” he said.
In response to a request for comment, White House officials said the administration’s policies reflect Trump’s executive order.
“We will prioritize hospitalization of refugees to South African citizens, including Africans, who are targeted by the South African government’s discriminatory laws and other racial minorities in South Africa,” the official said.
The claim that minority South Africans face discrimination from black majority has spread across far-right circles over the years, reflected in white South African-born Elon Musk, a US citizen who served as a top White House aide during the first four months of the Trump administration.
The South African government has rejected allegations of persecution and “white massacre.” There is no evidence to support the claims of widespread racial-based attacks within the country.
At a militant oval office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in May, Trump showed printed images of Reuters videos taken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of what he misrepresented as evidence of the mass murder of South Africans.
The South African Chamber of Commerce said earlier this year that 67,000 people were interested in the program.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Humeira Pamuk of Washington, Additional Reports by Christina Cook of San Francisco and Jonathan Landai of Washington, Edited by Don Darfey and Michael Leamons)
