Donald Trump has made it clear that refugees aren’t welcome in the US—until they’re white.
Regardless of suspending all refugee admissions into the nation as quickly as he was sworn on this previous January, the president and his state division bros made an exception and welcomed a planeload of 59 white Afrikaners Monday, lots of whom are farmers of Dutch descent who settled in South Africa. They had been greeted by Deputy Secretary of State Christoper Landau and Division of Homeland Safety Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar with open arms.
“We respect what you have had to deal with these past few years,” Landau stated to the households as they waved small American flags and donned camouflage jackets.
Landau joined Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in boosting the false narrative that white settlers in South Africa have been enduring racial discrimination and even violence from the federal government and Black South Africans.
“No one should have to fear having their property seized without compensation or becoming the victim of violent attacks because of their ethnicity,” the state division wrote in a Monday press launch.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, nonetheless, has been fast to offer the Trump administration a actuality verify.
“Those people who have fled are not being persecuted, they are not being hounded, they are not being treated badly,” he stated throughout a panel on the Africa CEO Discussion board in Cote d’Ivoire on Monday.
“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 stated.
The South African authorities is implementing the Expropriation Act, which can redistribute some land owned by white South African farmers to Black South African farmers.
Because of the nation’s racist apartheid coverage, Black farmers had been pushed into excessive poverty and had been unable to personal land as a minority of white settlers grew the nation’s crops. In the present day, simply 4% of personal land is owned by Black folks, although they make up 81% of the nation’s inhabitants. The controversial land reform program seeks to stability the scales that created generational poverty amongst South Africa’s Black residents.
Due to this and South Africa’s pro-Palestinian stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Trump has additionally reduce funding to the nation that supplied medical take care of sufferers affected by HIV and AIDS.
Rubio additionally gave Emrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to the US, the boot from the nation for his lower than favorable statements about his Expensive Chief.
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“South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country. Emrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA,” a hysterical Rubio tweeted in March.
After all, as Trump and his crew are celebrating over saving white farmers from “racial discrimination,” they’re additionally keen to kick out Afghan refugees who got here to the U.S. fleeing lethal situations of Taliban rule.
In response to Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, Afghan residents are secure to return regardless of the nation nonetheless being beneath the rule of the violent militant group.
“We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation,” Noem stated in a press launch obtained by The Washington Submit Monday, referring to Short-term Protected Standing. This system allowed folks fleeing war-torn nations, pure disasters or different challenges to legally reside within the U.S.
“Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevents them from returning to their home country,” Noem stated.
Landau was blatant when explaining why white Afrikaners are thought of an exception to Trump’s ban on refugees.
“Some of the criteria are making sure […] that they could be assimilated easily into our country,” he stated in response to a reporter’s query.
In different phrases, the Trump administration’s view of which persons are dealing with hazard and deserve refuge within the U.S. is extraordinarily subjective.
