Trump's week in review: Middle East trip, trade deal with China, investigating the abortion pill
3. State Department welcomes Afrikaner refugees to the United States
In a statement published Monday, State Department Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce announced that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed the first group of Afrikaner refugees to the U.S. The Trump administration has determined that the group of white South Africans faces the risk of discrimination and hostility from their government based on their race.
The people group descended mostly from Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600s. Trump has accused the South African government of passing a law allowing for the seizure of their agricultural properties without proper compensation. The South African government has rejected claims of discrimination against Afrikaners, though some who came to the U.S. as refugees say they faced death threats.
"Today, the United States sends a clear message, in alignment with the administration's America First foreign policy agenda, that America will take action to protect victims of racial discrimination," Bruce wrote. "No one should have to fear having their property seized without compensation or becoming the victim of violent attacks because of their ethnicity. In the coming months, we will continue to welcome more Afrikaner refugees and help them rebuild their lives in our great country."
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Trump first made resettling Afrikaners in the U.S. a priority in a February executive order, which lamented South Africa's passage of the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024.
Claiming the law enabled "the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation," the president characterized it as the latest of "countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners."
The executive order also directed the secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security to "take appropriate steps, consistent with law, to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admission Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination."
The resettling of Afrikaners has drawn the ire of some Christian refugee resettlement organizations, who have objected to the fact that the Trump administration effectively shut down the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program soon after taking office. The move has left thousands of refugees from other nations who have already been approved to enter the U.S. in limbo.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
