Trump administration officials have welcomed the first batch of white South African refugees into the United States.
In the Feb. 7 executive order titled “Addressing the egregious actions of the Republic of South Africa,” President Donald Trump announced that “the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.”
Fifty-nine Afrikaner refugees of all ages arrived at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., on Monday, immediately being greeted by Trump administration officials. Afrikaners are South Africans who are the descendants of Dutch, Huguenot, and German settlers beginning in the mid-17th century.
“I want you all to know that you are really welcome here and that we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau told the American flag-waving refugees at the D.C. airport.
“I hope and I trust that the American people have very open hearts. We are a very accepting, we’re a very friendly, welcoming people,” he continued, adding that he respected “what you had to deal with” and “the long tradition of your people.”
The State Department added in a post on X, “Today @DeputySecState welcomed the first group of Afrikaner refugees fleeing persecution from their native South Africa. We stand with these refugees, many of them farmers and former business owners, as they build a better future for themselves and their children here in the United States.”
Trump bemoaned the “genocide” taking place against Afrikaners in a Monday press conference, then critiqued the perceived failure of media outlets to cover the issue.
“It’s a genocide that’s taking place, that you people don’t want to write about,” Trump told reporters when asked about the refugee program. “But it’s a terrible thing that’s taking place. And 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. If it were the other way around, they talk about it, that would be the only story they talk about,” he added.
The acceptance of Afrikaner refugees found some critics in the U.S., such as Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
“The Administration must clarify why these individuals qualify for refugee status and resettlement in the U.S. and why they have been prioritized over refugees like Afghans, Burmese Rohingya and Sudanese who have fled their homes due to conflict and persecution,” she said in a Monday statement, saying the move was an effort to “rewrite history.”
Three refugee advocates protested near the airport’s check-in counters as the refugees arrived, incensed that white South Africans were considered refugees.
“They’re letting in these Afrikaners as ‘refugees,’ while tens of thousands … that are actual refugees are not allowed to enter,” Laura Thompson Osuri, the executive director of Homes Without Borders, told USA Today. She was carrying a sign saying, “Afrikaners are not refugees.”
Afrikaners formed a rigid ethnic identity after settling in South Africa in the mid-1600s. They dominated the political and business elite of South Africa until the end of apartheid in 1994. Presently, many Afrikaner activists and observers believe the group is being purposefully subjected to violence from the black majority, with the government being complicit.
Attacks against white Afrikaner farmers are a highly controversial issue. The government doesn’t keep statistics regarding the number of white farmers killed, but news of particularly brutal attacks has enraged many Afrikaners. Attacks on farms are often accompanied by extensive torture, rape, and mutilation.
The South African government has emphatically denied any bias against Afrikaners and holds that white farmers are only victims of a larger crime wave.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa assented on Jan. 23 to the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which allows the expropriation of land without compensation in some cases. Many, including the U.S. government, interpreted it as a move against the white minority, which controls most farmland in the country.
Trump’s February executive order said the law enables “the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation. This Act follows 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.”
South African foreign minister Ronald Lamola hit back at the accusations once again on Monday, reaffirming his government’s position that Boers are simply victims of a larger crime wave.
“There is no data at all that backs that there is persecution of white South Africans or white Afrikaners in particular who are farmers,” he said. “White farmers get affected by crime just like any other South Africans who do get affected by crime. So this is not factual, it is without basis.”