Some refugees welcome
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One of President Donald Trump’s first actions of his new term was to halt the arrival of all refugees coming into the United States. Yet there’s one group he’s made a point of welcoming: the white South Africans known as Afrikaners.
“Any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship. This process will begin immediately!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account last month.
His social media post was only the latest invitation to the Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and French settlers. Trump signed an executive order in February encouraging their resettlement in the United States. As justification, he cited a South African law on land expropriation and affirmative action that he claimed discriminated against Afrikaners, as well as that country bringing a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
At the same time, the president has ended funding for refugee resettlement programs and declared that refugees competed for “resources” against Americans. About 600,000 people were being considered for admission when Trump suspended the program right after his inauguration. Some refugees had already been approved following a yearslong process and had scheduled flights.
