It wasn’t long after Donald Trump’s second inaugural when the Republican president and his team announced a dramatic reversal on refugee admissions: In practically every instance, the administration said, the doors to the United States would be closed to refugees.
The policy apparently included one striking exception. NBC News reported:
American officials welcomed a group of 59 white South Africans at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday afternoon, in a ceremony greeting them as refugees under the argument that they are fleeing discrimination and racially based violence in their home country. The newly arrived people are from the ethnic minority of Afrikaners, the group of whites who ruled South Africa during apartheid. The dozens that came Monday, including families with young children, arrived via a flight chartered by the State Department.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar were personally on hand to welcome the Afrikaners to American soil.
While refugees from many countries have been forced to wait literally for years for resettlement assignments, the Trump administration adopted an expedited process for white South Africans, who were bumped to the front of the line, skipping past many who’ve been undergoing extensive vetting. The New York Times reported last week, “While the program remains suspended for refugees across the world, such as Congolese families in refugee camps and Rohingya seeking safety, white South Africans were processed much faster than is normal for these cases.”
Asked why refugees fleeing war, famine and natural disasters are being turned away while the administration welcomes Afrikaners, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the white South Africans “faced racial persecution” under a recent land expropriation law. The president added that those being welcomed “happen to be white.”
Apparently, the public is supposed to believe that it’s simply a coincidence that Trump is blocking refugees from entering the U.S. except for a group of white people. Episcopal Migration Ministries, which has maintained a decadeslong partnership with the government on refugee resettlements, apparently isn’t buying it. The Associated Press reported, “The Episcopal Church’s migration service is refusing a directive from the federal government to help resettle white South Africans granted refugee status, citing the church’s longstanding ‘commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.’” Making matters worse is the companion bookend: On the same day the Trump administration welcomed white South Africans, it also announced that it’s ending temporary protected status for Afghans after determining that conditions in the Taliban-led country “no longer meet the statutory requirements” for the designation. If there’s a defense for the White House’s competing standards for those in need of rescue, I can’t think of it.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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