Controversy Surrounds U.S. Refugee Status for White South Africans

Dozens of White South Africans, granted refugee status by the Trump administration due to alleged discrimination, arrived in the U.S. on Monday. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who met the 59 Afrikaners at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, asserted they had faced “very serious, egregious and targeted threats” and likened them to “quality seeds” expected to “bloom” in America. However, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa refuted these claims, stating he informed President Trump that the persecution of the White minority group was untrue. “They are leaving ostensibly because they don’t want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country in accordance with our constitution,” Ramaphosa said. While the administration expedited the Afrikaners’ refugee processing, it simultaneously suspended all other refugee resettlement, including those fleeing war and famine.