Trump welcomes us the first white South African refugees
After suspending the US refugee program, President Trump has made the exception to white South Africans known as Africans.
WASHINGTON – After halting a program to hospitalize refugees in the United States, President Donald Trump is giving an exception to one group of white South Africans who claim to be victims of racism.
A group of 59 South Africans belonging to the white minority African ethnic group classified as refugees by the Trump administration arrived in the United States on May 12th.
For decades, South Africa has been ruled under apartheid control by the country’s white minority, many of which were descendants of Dutch settlers. Apartheid, a legalized system of segregation, stripped the majority of its citizens from its fundamental rights and forced many black South Africans to live in ethnic Bantstan. It ended in 1994.
Many white South Africans, who currently make up a minority of the population, say they are targeting new laws that allow South African governments to seize property in the “public interest.”
Trump’s support for Africans returns to his first term. However, he placed his support behind the group during his second term after the land seizure policy, known as expropriation law, became law. Trump accused the South African government of “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly.”
“It’s a genocide that’s happening,” Trump told White House reporters on May 12.
Deputy Chief Christopher Landau greeted the Africans who arrived at the hangar at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. He compared their journey to his father, a Jewish man from Austria, who fled Europe in the 1930s, to South America, and then to America.
Their arrival comes after Trump signed an executive order in February to resettle Africans from “escape government-sponsored racially-based discrimination.” The lawsuit gave Africans a special priority after Trump signed another order on the first day of his presidency and effectively halted new refugees enrollment when he effectively halted his new refugee admissions when he suspended the US refugee hospitalization program decades ago.
“What’s going on in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why refugee programs were created,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters on May 9.
Trump adviser from South Africa and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also openly critical of the expropriation law. In February, Trump took action to block foreign aid to South Africa.
South Africa is home to an estimated 3 million Africans, typically Dutch and Huguenot descent, making up a significant portion of the roughly 4 million white people in South Africa. The country has a population of 62 million, with around 81% of whom are black.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has challenged Trump’s claims about land confiscation and discrimination against white South Africans. Ramaphosa and other defenders of the expropriation law argue that policies are necessary to reverse the apartheid-era heritage of disparities in land ownership.
Although the apartheid rules ended more than 30 years ago, a 2024 survey by researchers at the Institute of Africa and the University of Zambia shows that typical black South African households have only 5% of the typical white wealth.
“We reiterate that allegations of discrimination are unfounded,” South Africa’s Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement on May 9.
“It is most unfortunate that South African resettlement to the United States under the guise of being “refugees” appears to be completely politically motivated. The statement continues, and is designed to question South Africa’s constitutional democracy.
The Anglican Church announced on May 12 that it would not cooperate with federal refugees after being asked to help resolve Africans.
“It was painful to see a group of refugees selected in a very unusual way, but they have been treated more than many others who have been waiting for refugee camps and in dangerous situations over the years,” Bishop Sean Lowe wrote in a letter to his church followers.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, called the move a “baffle.”
“The decision by this administration to put one group at the forefront of the line is clearly politically motivated and an effort to rewrite history,” she said in a statement on May 12.
Contributed by Francesca Chambers.
Reach Joey Garrison with X @joeygarrison.
