The first group of white South Africans arrived in the United States on Monday, the State Department announced following the prioritization of the Afrikaner refugee resettlement program.
State spokesperson Tammy Bruce argued in a statement that the group is vulnerable and facing unjust racial discrimination in South Africa, saying taking them in is an action to protect victims of racial discrimination.
“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,” Bruce said.
The first plane carrying 49 Afrikaners, who are a white ethnic minority in South Africa, landed at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday morning, The New York Times reported.
President Trump defended granting refugee status to Afrikaner refugees, after halting refugee admissions for others leaving violence or famine like in Sudan and Afghanistan.
“Because they’re being killed, and we don’t want to see people be killed,” the president said.
“It’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about but it’s a terrible thing that’s taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or black, makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa and the newspapers and the media, television media doesn’t even talk about it,” Trump added.
He said he “essentially extended citizenship” to people who escaped violence in South Africa to come to the U.S. and that South Africa leadership plans to visit him at the White House sometime next week.
“I don’t care who they are, I don’t care about their race, their color, I don’t care about their height their weight, I don’t care about anything. I just know that what’s happening is terrible,” he said.
Over the past four years, 101 current or former workers living on farms, who are not typically white, were killed, The New York Times reported, citing South African police data. A South Africa foreign ministry spokesperson slammed the Trump administration’s move as “politically motivated.”
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