The US State Department informed Congress that it plans on admitting 10,000 more Afrikaners from South Africa this year. This exception that the Donald Trump administration gave the group of white South African natives puzzled some because it came so soon after the administration ended the Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which included countries like Haiti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and more.
At this point in his presidency, Trump has made it abundantly clear that he considers immigration one of the primary issues plaguing the US — and the Western world in general. Programs like TPS were initially introduced to provide a humanitarian safe haven for foreign nationals who cannot return to their countries because of hostile conditions.
However, when Trump became the 47th president of the United States, he made it very clear that his target was not just undocumented immigrants who had committed crimes inside the US. Soon, Trump claimed that these foreign nationals needed to return to their countries because of “America First” and because their country conditions had apparently improved. At one point, President Trump even called people from Somalia “garbage” to emphasize his point.
South African refugees are unique for more reasons than one. It’s not lost on anyone that Trump ally Elon Musk is from there and has been loudly and incorrectly insisting there’s a “white genocide” in South Africa.
Who can say why these particular immigrans are allowed…
Trump even brought up the systemic discrimination that Afrikaners are allegedly going through when he hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Oval Office. At one point, Trump rolled in a television and showed Ramaphosa what he claimed was a mass grave of white South African farmers killed in the nation’s farmlands. Later, it was revealed that the mass graves were actually from an entirely different African nation.
Despite the lack of clarity about whether the Afrikaner community is even at risk, there is still some legal housekeeping left. The Trump administration is expected to meet with Congress this coming week to inform lawmakers about refugee levels and the fiscal responsibility that will be required in the upcoming fiscal year.
According to Yahoo, Trump has slashed the intake of refugees to historic lows not seen since 1980, so the exception comes as a surprise to many. And while there have been concerning speeches by vocal opposition leader Julius Malema, who has made a name for himself on the world stage by chanting “kill the farmer” at rallies, there has not been any evidence of organized political violence against white farmers in South Africa.
Granted, toxic political rhetoric has been at an all-time high. There is cause for concern when people hear themselves being targeted by political leaders with influential voices. On an individual level, people are allowed to interpret those comments how they see fit. But when it comes to extending humanitarian aid, why is the Trump administration viewing the white South African refugee as needy while describing the Somali refugee as “garbage?” Only the president can answer that.
