The Trump administration plans to fly about 60 white South Africans to Washington on Monday, reviving only for them a program to admit people escaping war and political persecution that has been otherwise shut down. President Trump signed an executive order in February suggesting that "Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination" come to the US—an accusation South Africa rejects. After a welcome ceremony at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, the new arrivals will be resettled by the federal government, spread among several states, the Washington Post reports.
They've all officially been granted refugee status, per NPR, which reports Alabama, California, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, and Iowa have agreed to take the immigrants. The effort needs to rely on a system Trump has nearly dismantled; federal funding to nonprofit groups that help refugees settle in the US has been decimated, and the case managers who helped find jobs and housing for arrivals have been laid off. Government documents prepared for Monday's arrivals nevertheless tell them, "Your case manager will pick you up from the airport and take you to housing that they have arranged for you"—which might be a hotel. "You are expected to support yourself quickly in finding work," the instructions say.
Refugees other than the Afrikaners, who are descendants of mainly Dutch settlers in South Africa, have essentially been blocked since Trump took office in January. Thousands of people, including Black sub-Saharan Africans, were about to move to the US, said an official at Human Rights Watch. "The door was slammed in their faces," said Bill Frelick, per the Post. "Now, to have a group that didn't flee their country, that has historically enjoyed tremendous privilege in the country and that are white, provides a cruel racial twist to the suspension of refugee resettlement." (More Trump administration stories.)
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