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.
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They don’t have much melanin, why would he keep them out?
Eastern European sex workers are the same.
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The U.S. government has officially granted 54 Afrikaans South Africans, white descendants of mainly Dutch colonizers, refugee status and they are expected to land in the U.S. on Monday May 12, three sources with knowledge of the matter have told NPR. The sources did not want to be named because they work for the U.S. government and fear for their careers.
U.S. authorities on Thursday were trying to arrange a charter flight that would bring the South Africans to Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., on Monday morning, but it's not clear if they will be allowed to land there. If that is not possible then they will be sent on commercial flights, according to the sources.
The sources said a press conference was planned for the group's arrival at Dulles airport, which would be attended by high level officials from the Departments of State and Homeland Security....
The source noted it is unusual for refugees to be welcomed at the airport by U.S. dignitaries, and said the process of interviewing them in South Africa and granting them refugee status has been unusually quick.
The Afrikaners have been given P1 refugee status. According to the State Department website this is given to "individual cases referred by designated entities to the program by virtue of their circumstances and apparent need for resettlement."
The South Africans will now have a pathway to U.S. citizenship and be eligible for government benefits.
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In a striking move that ends a nearly four-decades-old relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced on Monday that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees, citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been classified as refugees by President Trump's administration.
In a letter sent to members of the church, the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe — the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church — said that two weeks ago, the government "informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees."
The request, Rowe said, crossed a moral line for the Episcopal Church, which is part of the global Anglican Communion, which boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated and vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.
"In light of our church's steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step," Rowe wrote. "Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.""
